Communities and Local Government

• Housing
• Homelessness
• Overview and key facts

Overview and key facts

The number of households that became homeless (accepted by local authorities as owed the main homelessness duty in England) between January 2009 and March 2009 was 26 per cent lower than the same period in 2008. Homelessness acceptances peaked in 2003/04, and since then quarterly figures have dropped by 67 per cent, with year on year reductions.

In addition, the number of households living in temporary accommodation has been falling since the end of 2005. On 31 March 2009 the number had fallen by 17 per cent compared to 31 March 2008 and is over a third lower than 2004. 54 per cent of local authorities in England have already met the target to halve the number of households in temporary accommodation compared to the end 2004 baseline.

The National Rough Sleeping Estimate for 2008 shows a 74 per cent reduction in rough sleeping in England since 1998.

The Government has ended the long term use of Bed and Breakfast accommodation for families with children. In March 2002 the Government announced a target to end the use of Bed and Breakfast hotels to accommodate homeless families with children, except in an emergency, and then for no longer than six weeks. This target was met in March 2004, and is being sustained through the Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) (England) Order 2003, which came into force in April 2004.

National Statistics, published in June 2009, show that the Government's strategy to prevent homelessness is working. These successes are a result of effective partnerships with local authorities and the voluntary sector to tackle the root causes of homelessness. New prevention services have also been put in place to address the problem.

The Government has a challenging target to halve the number of households living in temporary accommodation to 50,500 by 2010. The Communities and Local Government strategy document Sustainable Communities: Settled Homes; Changing Lives (published March 2005) outlines how the Department will achieve this target and further reductions in homelessness by:

• encouraging homelessness prevention
• supporting vulnerable people
• tackling its wider causes and symptoms
• helping more people to move away from rough sleeping
• providing more settled homes

On 14 November 2006 the Government announced a package of measures to tackle youth homelessness. These included:

• a commitment to end, by 2010, the use of bed and breakfast accommodation by local housing authorities in discharging their homelessness duty to secure suitable accommodation for 16 and 17 year olds
  
• improved access to homelessness mediation across the country (including family mediation for young people), so that there is a general expectation of such services
  
• the creation of a new national supported lodgings development scheme providing accommodation, advice and mediation services for young people who can no longer stay in the family home