The chief executive of campaigning charity Shelter is blaming “skyrocketing rents” for a crisis of homelessness.
As part of an appeal for money to be sent to the charity this Christmas, Polly Neate says: “Homelessness is on nobody’s Christmas list, but 309,000 people will spend this time of year in a tiny hostel room or freezing in a doorway.
“The housing emergency is out of control. Chronic underinvestment in social homes has left people unable to afford skyrocketing private rents and plunged record numbers into homelessness.
“It is appalling that the government has allowed thousands of families to be packed into damp and dirty B&B’s and hostel rooms, which are traumatising children and making people desperately ill.
“Until the government takes this emergency seriously, our frontline services will do everything they can to help people keep or find a safe home this winter.“
Neate claims Shelter provides “vital advice and support” and “fights for the solutions people want and need to end homelessness.”
She also claims that 309,000 people in England will spend Christmas without a home, including almost 140,000 children.
This adds up to one person in every 182 in England and she claims that over 3,000 people are sleeping rough on any given night and 279,400 are living in temporary accommodation. There are also 20,000 people in hostels or supported accommodation.
Neate says the government’s own figures reveal that 47 per cent of families who are homeless in temporary accommodation have been there for more than two years.
Shelter also says it has identified places across England “where homelessness is most acute” with London the worst, with one in 51 people homeless. Outside of London, Luton is the local authority with the highest rates of homelessness with one in 64 people homeless, followed by Birmingham and Manchester where one in 71 are homeless and Hastings where one in 79 are homeless.
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Homelessness is caused by a myriad of different things.
Divorce, landlord selling or dying, ASB, etc.
Prices of just about everything have skyrocketed so it's ridiculous to single out rents. In reality there is far more help available to tenants than to homeowners.
The LHA freeze has certainly made things far more difficult than they should be but there is help out there if people are willing to ask for it.
When tenants say they can't afford a rent increase they need to think very carefully about how homeowners must feel about their mortgage payments doubling overnight and having no access to all the additional funding that is available to tenants. A few minutes thought may lead them to the conclusion there's an awful lot of advantages to being a tenant and maybe they should do everything in their power to pay that rent increase and retain their home. Chances are if they're on a low income and their rent is in the bottom half they will get additional help from their Local Authority to enable them to keep their home. The last thing the Councils want is yet another homeless family to find a hotel room for.
And getting screwed on rents.
Totally agree. Homelessness has many causes. High rents are also caused by many underlying factors. It is completely untrue to say that high rents cause homelessness, you need to identify the cause of the high rents to get to the true cause.
Sandra
I realise sums and logic aren't your strong points so I will make this easy:
Assume 100 tenants can no longer afford their rent and (eventually) are evicted. Does that mean that the homeless figure rises by 100?
NO because 100 tenants currently homeless or in other homes will move in.
Previous homeless figure +100 evicted - 100 rehoused = same homeless figure.
On the other hand, many ex rental homes being sold off are NOT bought by former renters so many such sales DO lead to more homeless- and Shelter, Acorn and Generation Rant are principally responsible for landlords selling up and adding to the homeless totals.
To exacerbate matters, most owner occupied properties house fewer people than similar properties occupied by renters.
Hope this helps you understand who the REAL culprits are when moaning about higher rents, homelessness etc.
So apart from telling us all this …. What are THEY going to do to help solve it 🤷♂️🤷♂️
A rent cap.
Nice one Sandy B 😂😂 cheered me up for the day💰💰
In which case Sandra rents up NOW while we still can
We need a benefits cap!
Sandy B, again you are full of the festive Cheer..! How will a rent cap work if the rent does not cover the mortgage? The landlord then has to sell up and another family on the street. Didn't work that one did it?
How about landlord is mortgage free and rent goes up because the tenant trashed the place and landlord now has to spend 20k to fix everything? Again he sells up because he has no access to funds. Didn't work did it.
How about Wales and Scotland who have tried it and both the idiots in power have now left a right royal fk up.....
Sandra, if you want to know the effect of rent caps look at Scotland. They have the fasting rising rents in the UK.
My rents in Glasgow went up by about 25% in 2017 and again by 33% in June 2023 to match market rents pushed up by SNP PRS legislation, rent and eviction freezes and more recently a 3% rent cap.
Coming soon to a rental property near you!
Shelter are part of the problem. Years of them campaigning against landlords along with other organisations, councils and government also declaring war on landlords has caused this problem and encouraged landlords to call it a day. That is why there is a shortage and rents are increasing.
SBR describing herself again.
Sandra we don't want to know what a good one you had this morning. your mummy might be pleased if you tell her though.
Be careful, SBR's knight in tarnished armour aka Trevor Cooper, will be riding to her defence. LOL
Will- Well said!!!
Polly is your foot sore get that wound seen to. Shelter is causing the problem continuously attacking landlords driving them out.
Polly time to step up come in from the sidelines and actually house some people with all the millions your organisation has as its disposal.
The best footballer is always in the Stand.
It suites Shelter to keep homeless homeless otherwise their membership drops!
Until shelter start supplying their own stock of rental homes to help the situation, I honestly don’t care what they’ve got to say 😂
If only. Unfortunately they clearly state, in the small print, that they will not provide accommodation.
If high rents were the main cause of homelessness there would be 1000s of empty properties without tenants. Sky rocketing rents are the result of lack of availability & increasing costs to LLs. Only by addressing these issues will rents stop rising. We need increased availability of rental housing but Shelter et al, with their anti-LL policies, are making the situation worse.
Maybe Holly should start to talk about the causes of reduced rental property supply and the increased costs to LL’s at the root of increased rental costs to tenants.
Her list should include, Higher taxes on LL’s, removal of LL’s ability to deduct mortgage interest as a cost of business, higher mortgage costs to LL’s, agents & landlords no longer able to charge tenants application / refinancing costs, increased regulations adding cost to LL’s , EPC requirements adding costs to LL’s, gas and electric certification adding costs to LL’s, the list goes on.
A large part of these increased costs can be traced back to pressure groups like shelter, who’s pressure for increased regulation have driven up costs to LL’s, groups who now fail to see the simple economics of being a LL in todays market.
Shelter should support LL’s rather than vilifying, LL’s are the providers of the property that house the people shelter claim to represent. If LL’s were better supported maybe they wouldn’t invest and improve supply.
Well said Bruce!
Polly Bleat has changed her tune. I thought it was Section 21 that was the main cause of homelessness? Now, allegedly, it is sky rocketing rents. Do make your mind, Polly dear.
What has caused rents to increase? Well obviously the recent increases in interest rates, taxing landlords on turnover rather than profit have persuaded landlords to increase rents. Many landlords, like myself, do not increase rents during a tenancy. Many have now dropped that policy.
What else has caused rents to sky rocket, Polly? Ah yes, reduced supply because landlords are selling up. Why are landlords selling up, Polly? Removal of Section 21 and demonising landlords perhaps. Now who is to blame for that anti-landlord attitude, Polly? Yes, got it in one: SHELTER. That is SHELTER who do not house anyone, unless you count Polly Bleat.😡
I too am now issuing sec 13 notices to increase rents during tenancies, something I never used to do to good tenants, rent cap? I'm going to be prepared for it
Ah the landlords are having a good moan.
Sandy B…. Come and join us, get a couple of properties and you too can see the ‘ Dark Side ‘ Star Wars style 😂 🚀
Which you never do, do you Sandra? All you do is whinge, whinge, whinge. Try WORKING for a change.
Actually we are just correcting another inaccurate headline from the Shelter propaganda organisation.
@ Worried Landlord, If only landlords had an organisation that rebutted these misleading pronouncements from Shelter. 😉Imagine if every article by Shelter carried a reply from such an organisation. They could even ask why Shelter houses nobody. 😱
Instead we have tumbleweeds.💤
Seems you like a good moan as well Sandra
Tell me the last time you had a good moan Sandy B ??? ;0)
I think you are on the wrong forum love. This one is PRO-LL!
@ Tricia, I would amend that to pro-GOOD Landlords.
I agree with Sandra this time. No sympathy for moaning landlords- those that are failing to maintain “decent “ standards, should be banned from renting homes, those that are unhappy with the endless criticism and penalties , should sell. Then Sandra&co could either live in a hostel(tent or whatever they prefer) or buy themselves a home.
I’ve been spending every evening after work looking at the number of properties for rent in our town and hoping that the newcomers in the two medium sized hotels and the ex pub are not given approval of their refugee applications for at least three or four months, so I could help my tenants to move out of my house and be someone else’s problem.
I want to renovate my house but I have not been allowed even to see it from inside for the past few years.
And the number of ultra cheap terrace houses on the market now is astonishing- why ever complaining Sandras are not buying them. Ah of course because she’ s typing humorous comments on this site at 9 am when responsible people are at work.
I suppose the rest of the day she’s practicing Kama sutra with whoever passes her front door .
@ Nikie, it seems you are a member of the "those that are unhappy with the endless criticism and penalties , should sell" group.
Why do you think landlords are sellingup? We are unhappy with the endless criticism, penalties and unfair tax treatment. There is always the hope that those in govrnment will actually listen to us before it is too late. Sadly most of us accept that particular ship has sailed.
Properties formerly always rented but now not rented are one cause of homelessness - but the main reason for this is Landlords fearing losing control of their own property due to loss of Section 21 in Scotland or its threatened loss in England. I currently have one empty property where the students bailed out after falling out and I am considering my options whereas before 2017 I would have been letting it out now on a 6 month lease.
By definition, any property rented out for any rent, no matter how high, is REDUCING, not increasing homelessness.
I have to say Polly My Old Fruit, this is a lie
“Until the government takes this emergency seriously, our frontline services will do everything they can to help people keep or find a safe home this winter.“
Neate claims Shelter provides “vital advice and support” and “fights for the solutions people want and need to end homelessness.”
Never known them find anyone a home??
You sit back in your home on 150k a year and do not worry about the 300k who are homeless as a direct result of you and your teams actions. Every landlord on here has a legitimate gripe about the tactics employed and vilification of PRS. You do not split out any homelessness which is a result of choice, eviction, divorce, mental health, illegals or anything.
Tell us the split and then as a group see if we can come together to resolve issues. Local councils are on a round of revenue raising and do not give a flying fig about anyone as long as they can have a four day week, Shelter, Crisis are not interested other than generating headlines to keep contributions coming in....
Why do none of these organisations including Govt ever look at what causes rents to rise, and then go on to investigate these causes and what needs to be done to improve the situation.
Probably wouldn't show them in a good light or reduce their donation income!
John Chart ruminates:
Let us for one be fair to dear Polly Kettle-off
In paras 3,4 and of the above article she blames the govt and councils for not building/providing sufficient social homes! So - for once - a rare once - Shelter is not directly attacking rogue capitalist landlords.
How can it cause homelessness??? Simply some tenants are pushed out to be homeless are replaced with other homeless tenants who are now provided with a new home at a higher rent. It's a 'zero sum game'. All properties are still occupied?? Apart, of course, from ones like the way mine are going which is empty until sold due to Shelter, Michael Gove, Generation Rant, Captain Darling an the rest of them with all their campaigning and persectuction of landlords.
Surely high rents like petrol, gas, oil prices etc are caused by the lack of availability, for instance the war in Ukraine sent petrol and gas prices up, a famine elsewhere will send the price of bread up. Right now there is a lack of properties available to rent caused in the main by the constant attacks and threats on private landlords which has caused thousands of them to issue section 21s and sell up. Surely if Polly, Generation rent or Gormless Gove believe PRS is sooo bad for renters (albeit having worked well enough for over 30 years until immigration figures went into orbit) why don't they campaign to ban it altogether then spend the money donated to their so called charities on buying and letting to all the homeless they care so much about I'm sure that would do wonders for the homeless figures.
Nikie, no worries the more we are attacked the less inclination we have to house Tenants at all not least improve them for Sandra. After the shock I got today to see several encampments on the paving under the over hang in front of Town Hall entrance in such cold wet conditions. Unbelievable time go Mr Gove to go that causing this. I have property vacant I probably could have houses the half of them there so then if it weren’t for the Renters Reform Bill and scrapping Section 21. So Mr Michael Gove Housing Secretary it’s on your head.
I haven’t seen those photos on main stream media yet probably papers missing a trick here they’ll up roar when public becomes aware this is not a third world Country.
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