Shelter has issued new claims about homelessness triggered in part by private rents, as it prepares for its annual festive fundraising campaign.

New research – funded for Shelter by the Nationwide Building Society – claims that one in 10 private renters are at risk of losing their homes this winter. The charity says this is equivalent to 814,000 adults or an estimated 1.1m people if children are included. 

The charity says it’s come up with the figure after assessing how many private renting adults “have received or been threatened with an eviction notice in the last month (474,000), as well as the number of tenants who are behind on their rent (411,000), which puts their home in danger.“ 

It goes on to say that 3.5m tenants – that’s 43 per cent of the total – say they are now worried about becoming homeless due to housing costs. 

The charity also claims that 43 per cent of tenants struggling with or behind on their rent payments say this is due to rent rises, that almost a third of renters have borrowed money in order to pay their rent; and that 14 per cent of all private tenants have had their rent put up in the last month alone.  

Shelter says it “is calling on the public to support its frontline services as they continue to help people fighting to find, or keep hold of, a safe home this winter.”

Chief executive Polly Neate comments: “A terrible winter of evictions lies ahead as millions of renters’ grapple with runaway rents and the enduring cost of living crisis. Every day our frontline teams take more calls from families living the nightmare of rent rises they cannot afford. And every day we speak to more families facing the horror of losing their home. 

“Shelter will continue to be there so that no-one has to weather this storm alone, but as more people are forced to turn to us, we need the public’s support more than ever. We also need the government to step in.  With private rents rising faster than many people can cope with, the government must pull families back from the brink of homelessness by immediately unfreezing housing benefit so they can pay their rent and keep hold of their home.”