LONDON – The severe warning is issued in The Homelessness Monitor: Great Britain, a new study by the homeless charity Crisis and overseen by Heriot-Watt University. By 2023, the prediction has climbed from 227,000 households on any one night in 2020—a 32% increase—to 300,000 households, potentially facing the worst types of homelessness.
There are clear indicators that more people are becoming homeless as a result of increased living costs and a rapid decline in affordable housing. 3,628 persons rough camped in London between July and September 2022, according to recent statistics from the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) dated October 2022. There has been a 24% rise when compared to this time last year. It is particularly concerning because the majority of the increase—1,844 extra street residents—is the result of those who are just starting to rough it, according to the charity.
Crisis is pleading with the government to acknowledge the seriousness of the issue and take action to increase housing aid so that it covers the actual cost of rent. 1.7 million private renters, or 2 in 5, rely on housing subsidies to pay their rent, however beginning early 2020, the amount beneficiaries receive has been capped and is based on statistics from 2018–19. Tens of thousands of the poorest households face the possibility of homelessness as a result of the fastest rate of rent growth in 16 years and the disparity between rent and actual living expenditures.
