Once again the campaigning charity Shelter is using Section 21 as a lever in its campaign for public donations this Christmas.
A statement from the charity says the severity of what it calls “the housing emergency” is getting worse this winter, as new data reveals that over half of callers to its emergency helpline are people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
It says its own research “lays bare the devastating impact the combination of the pandemic, the cost of living crisis and record high rents have had over the last number of years.”
Its data claims that over half of all callers (55%) are homeless or at risk of homelessness – up 10% on 2020 levels.; of these, more than one in three (35%) are families with children – up 12% in the last four years; the number of single mothers in need of housing support has more than doubled in this same time period – up from 5% in 2020 to 13%; and almost half (49%) of calls are from people struggling with housing costs – up by 14% since the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis began.
In the last year, the main reason people called the helpline was on issues relating to affording their housing costs and Shelter says in its statement: “That includes callers being forced into rent arrears after struggling with the cost of increasing household bills and rent, being threatened with eviction after being hit with huge rent hikes or facing homelessness because private rents are at record highs.”
A spokesperson adds: “Day in and day out, our dedicated team of advisers are hearing increasingly heartbreaking stories from desperate families in appalling living situations. From the family forced to fork out hundreds on getting their child to school after being uprooted to an emergency B&B miles from their community, to the young pregnant woman terrified of sleeping on the street after being made homeless.”
The statement also credits M&S Food, with which it has been linked for 20 years, as helping towards Shelter’s emergency helpline.
This article is taken from Landlord Today