Shelter claims government figures show 5,940 households were “threatened with homelessness” in England as a result of Section 21 evictions between April and June this year.
This figure has risen by 76 per cent in a year following the end of the eviction ban in May 2021.
To be classified as ‘threatened with homelessness’ by their council, Shelter says a household must be at risk of losing their home in the next eight weeks. This also means the council have a legal duty to help the household to either stay in their current home or to find somewhere new to live.
Shelter is urging the government to bring forward its long-promised Renters’ Reform Bill which will ban S21 evictions, and to unfreeze housing benefit to help struggling renters this winter to access safe accommodation.
The charity says the government data also revealed that 25 per cent were found to be homeless or at risk of becoming homeless because of the loss of a private tenancy.
In addition the number of private renting households in rent arrears who have become homeless or threatened with homelessness is up 38 per cent in the last year.
Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, says: “This winter is going to be brutal as the cost of living crisis goes from bad to worse, and the threat of rising rents and evictions loom large.
“Not a day goes by without our emergency helpline taking yet more calls from families who are being turfed out of their homes because of no-fault evictions. Many of these families won’t be able to find another rental – and instead may spend a bleak winter trapped in emergency accommodation with nowhere to cook or eat a meal, let alone put up a Christmas tree.
“The government promised to ban no fault evictions, it must get on with the job and make the Renters’ Reform Bill law. And to protect people from the threat of homelessness this winter, it must unfreeze housing benefit so families can pay their rent.”
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Keep going, Polly Bleat. Every time you open your mouth, more landlords sell up. Why don’t you take some of the MILLIONS stashed away and actually house some of the “wonderful” tenants threatened by landlords?
Nobody should be surprised that this woman, Polly Neate, repeatedly spouts highly misleading, self-serving and ultimately self defeating nonsense like this... she is after all the head of a once worthy charity that long ago lost its way and for many years now has been little more than hard-left political lobbying organisation. They, led by her, merely pose and posture as a champion of the homeless when - so far as I know - real homelessness (by my old fashioned definition of it) is certainly not their main focus.
Let's remind ourselves: its not difficult to find genuinely homeless people - just wander around more or less any city centre late at night and you're sure to come across plenty of people who, for one reason or another, are huddling in shop or office doorways, or else anywhere they can find that's slightly out of the wind. They'll be wearing filthy old coats and wrapping themselves in disgusting smelling blankets (if they're lucky enough to find one or two) and will usually be lying on top of piles of cardboard which they use as an insulating material to try and separate themselves from the bitter cold of the pavings and concrete below them - an unimaginable cold if you've never experienced it, even in seemingly milder times of the year, that steadily chills you and eventually totally drains you of any core body warmth - but in winter even just a few nights of it could easily kill you and if it doesn't will still do you serious harm... the luckiest ones might have found themselves a wooden pallet to sleep on but another homeless person might attack them in the night to steal it from them so it might not have been that lucky after all...
Those are examples of true homelessness. Those are people with no actual "shelter". so what is Shelter doing for them? Generally not much so far as I know - they seem to think its someone else's job! They're far too busy trying to drive landlords out of business and in the process inadvertently start a chain of events that in some cases might eventually lead to real homelessness... but they don't seem to mind or care.
Shelter's definition of "homelessness" is apparently someone who has a home (or shelter) just not an ideal one or one they especially like, e.g. temporary accommodation, perhaps in a hostel or something, while waiting to be allocated something better. These particular "homeless" people will certainly not have lost virtually everything they had and now be trying to stay alive sleeping rough on the streets somewhere!
Shelter's definition of "threatened with homelessness" seems to be simply a person currently with a home who has been asked to try and find another home (even if it perhaps will entail some effort on their part to find and might required a few compromises from their ideal first choice), but in the meantime they will have a vast amount of legal protection and there is virtually no risk or chance at all (fortunately) of them simply being thrown out and actually being *made* homeless. In other words it might be a worry and nuisance for them, and incredibly disruptive and inconvenient, but its largely a slow moving process with more than enough time for them to do something about it if they really wanted to - or get help from someone like Shelter if they still actually, genuinely helped people rather than just pretended to while really focusing more on making a political noise and nuisance of themselves perhaps to impress donors or something...
It would make a refreshing change if Polly actually tried living by her wits (I know, I know...) and sleeping rough on a street somewhere for a week this winter. I wonder how long she'd last before giving up? I also wonder if the experience might teach her anything?
Very well put, Barry.
I am sure your tongue was very firmly wedged in your cheek when you wrote, "if Polly actually tried living by her wits". Unfortunately she, like that woman in Scotland, has a one track mind. Polly Bleat living on her wits on the streets? She would starve within a day. If Shelter really cared they would buy some properties, do them up and let them out to tenants on benefits. Mind you, that would eat a very big chunk of their millions, but I'd love to see how long they lasted before issuing a Section 21.
More crap from polly bleat and her sheep! Even in this poorly researched article it says 25% affected in private tenancies which means 75% must be in other tenancies eg social housing. Shut up woman!
The increase is in part due to the Covid moratorium and the long backlog in the Courts.
Also, as interest rates rise and finance costs are no longer a permitted expense, landlords are being forced to evict to sell up otherwise they will run at a loss. Who can afford to do that?
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