Urgent lifeline needed to exit homelessness

that prevention is the best approach and that the length of time anyone should have to live in homeless services should be minimal.

“People are being forced to spend longer in temporary accommodation than they should because of the crisis that already exists. We are going to quickly see a population of people ageing prematurely and presenting with deteriorating health conditions. e impact on children in temporary accommodation is particularly concerning.

“What people are living through now is a pandemic of poverty and survival and what the gures don’t show is that those who are in emergency accommodation are struggling and just holding on.

“ e increase in the numbers clearly shows that the removal of the eviction ban has had a signi cant impact. We are incredibly concerned that the lack of housing options will increase homelessness even further. If in three or four months we don’t have it right, we will experience more street homelessness, drug use and families in crisis.

“ ese gures are not representative of the full scale of the housing and homelessness emergency. We are hugely concerned that those seeking international protection who have the permission to remain will not be able to obtain long term housing and get out of Direct Provision, due to lack of housing and HAP eligible tenancies. “ e ambition of the White Paper was to create own door accommodation – and to create a humane reception system. ese objectives have not been implemented in the timeframes envisaged. We accept it will be di cult to do this in the current housing crisis but there is a need for us to be more speci c about these targets.”