It’s estimated that around 400,000 people are homeless or at risk of going homeless in England. Sadly, a large proportion of those are children without homes. According to a report launched by Shelter, 135,000 children are homeless or living in temporary accommodation. The highest number in 12 years.
Emergency accommodation
This report shines a light on the 5,683 homeless families with children currently living in emergency B&Bs and hostels. Arguably the worst type of accommodation. Here, families tend to live in one room with hardly any space to play, cook or eat meals. Sometimes they’re even forced to share a bathroom with strangers. This accommodation, as they’re placed there in an emergency, is often located far from schools, jobs and loved ones too. This unfortunately means that these children often suffer in school. Not only do they struggle to actually get to school, they can end up falling behind the rest of their classmates.
Around 1.5 million children were forecast to fall into poverty between 2010 and 2021, according to Shelter UK who dubbed it a ‘national disgrace’. And that was before the world was plunged into a global pandemic. With the furlough scheme due to end and a significant number of redundancies being forecast, numbers are only set to rise.
How can we get children into a safe home?
We know that we’ve been in a housing crisis for some time, and that we need a lot more homes than we are building. But the solution isn’t just to ‘build more homes’. They need to be safe, secure, accessible and affordable. Families need to be able to live and still be able to put food on the table.
The right home environment is essential for our health and mental wellbeing. Meeting National Space Standards, our homes provide families with ample space. Children are able to spend time together whilst also having the space to be able to have some time to themselves to complete homework or just take some time out. We also build with placemaking in mind. Actively encouraging communities to grow and thrive so families and children are able to socialise helping to combat loneliness.
New homes also need to be fit for the future. Our bespoke, affordable and accessible family modular homes come with a lifetime guarantee of 60 years and are built to meet future demand. Our bespoke service means that we’re flexible enough to work closely with our clients to design and build the homes that they want and need. So not every home will look the same and can also meet different needs, for different people. Lots of homes across the country aren’t suitable. We need to be building homes that last and that families can grow old in.
We can help councils and local authorities meet the immediate housing needs across the UK. If children have somewhere safe to call their home, they have the space to do homework and play that isn’t also the same place that they have to eat and wash. Enabling them to thrive at school and later in life.
Find out how we can help get children without homes into safe, affordable ones by reaching out.