The number of people calling Shelter’s free emergency helpline is surging as Britain experiences a worsening homelessness crisis. The housing charity said more than half of its callers are people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness – up 10% on 2020 levels.
More than a third of those calling for help are families with children, also 12% higher than four years ago and at a time when more than 150,000 children are living in temporary accommodation across England.
The number of single mothers in need of housing support has more than doubled over the same time period – up from 5% in 2020 to 13%.
Almost half of all calls are from people struggling with housing costs as sky-high rents and the cost of living crisis has hit families hard.
The charity is hearing from 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.
Shelter is braced for rising demand for the helpline, which is part-funded by M&S Food, over the winter. A percentage of every sale from M&S’s festive Food on the Move range, including Christmas sandwiches, goes directly towards Shelter’s emergency helpline.
Andrea Deakin, head of telephone and online advice services at Shelter, said: “With rents rocketing across the country and homelessness at an all-time high, more people than ever are coming to our emergency helpline who are homeless or on the verge of losing the roof over their heads.
“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.
“Our advisors are doing everything they can to help families impacted by the housing emergency this winter. By picking something up from M&S’s Food on the Move range, you will help families get the expert advice and support they need to find a safe place to call home. ”
For people like Hazell, the charity’s work has been invaluable.
“Calling Shelter was probably one of the best things I did to be honest,” she told the Big Issue.
“A lot of it was understanding the situation and explaining things that I didn’t realise were important. Things like what my rights are, not just for myself but for my kids too, alongside health issues and disabilities and things like that.
“It just helped me understand quite a lot of the technical and legal stuff because I was just being overwhelmed with information. It was like it was all going in but none of it made any sense.
“It was also just nice to have someone to sit and talk to, who validated how I was feeling as well. It was kind of like a therapy session at the same time as getting help.
“My landlord has already started repairs. At the minute I’ve got no kitchen, I’m having a new one put in, electrical stuff redone and all the repairs that I’ve been nagging for 12 years to be done are now finally getting done. Fingers crossed they are done for Christmas.”
If you need help with a housing emergency, call Shelter on 0808 303 5059.
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