1 Understanding the causes of homelessness
1. Levels of homelessness are influenced by a variety
of factors including the state of the economy, social and personal
factors including family and relationship breakdown and levels
of supply of affordable housing. When the Committee of Public
Accounts last examined homelessness, in 1991, it called for better
research on homelessness to inform national policy development.[2]
Fourteen years on the need for better quantitative data on the
levels, patterns and causes of homelessness is just as great.[3]
2. Official statistics on statutory homelessness
are derived from forms filled in by local authorities. They are
designed to monitor local authority decisions and actions under
the homelessness legislation, rather than to provide information
on homeless households. Reliable information is held only on those
who approach local authorities for help and who are accepted as
being unintentionally homeless and in priority need. Priority
need groups include households with children, those who are vulnerable
as a result of age, disability or poor health, and people fleeing
violence - the "statutorily homeless".
3. ODPM publish a measure each quarter of the "flow"
of new cases of households accepted by local authorities as statutorily
homeless. These statistics show that almost 128,000 households
were accepted during 2004.[4]
(Figure 1). This figure is slightly lower than the
total for 2003, although it is still higher than in previous years,
and around 25% higher than the figure for 1997.
Figure 1 : Number of statutorily homeless households
1997-2004
Source: National Audit Office and ODPM
4. Local authorities record the two most recent or
pressing causes of homelessness of those they accept as statutorily
homeless such as parents no longer being willing to provide accommodation
or the break-down of relationships. But this data may not reflect
the underlying causes of homelessness. For many people homelessness
is a one-off event. But others can find themselves in a cycle
of social or financial difficulty which leaves them without a
settled home on several occasions.[5]
5. The official data is also problematic in explaining
the underlying causes of changes in patterns of homelessness.
The homelessness legislation and the way it is implemented by
different local authorities can have an impact. For example, the
North East and Yorkshire and Humber region experienced one of
the highest percentage increases in homelessness acceptances in
recent years, nearly doubling between 1999 and 2003.[6]
One of the factors that ODPM considered might account for this
rise was the greater capacity of local authorities in these regions
to take on responsibility for housing vulnerable 16 and 17 year
olds following their addition to the priority needs categories
in 2002.[7]
6. Local authorities can only assess a person's housing
status and take the necessary action if that person approaches
them for assistance. They do not need to house those who are not
in priority need. Many homeless seek help from the voluntary and
community sector. Others stay where they are or go to stay with
family and friends. The Barker Review of Housing Supply estimated
there were some 154,000 households in stop gap accommodation,
i.e. staying with friends and families.[8]
ODPM told us there were no reliable data on the "hidden homeless".
[9]
7. Homelessness is inevitably influenced by the availability
of housing and affordable housing in particular. Some 19% of England's
20 million households live in social housing.[10]
The Barker Review of Housing Supply noted that the number of houses
for social rent built in the United Kingdom fell from around 42,700
per year in 1994-95 to around 21,000 in 2002-03.[11]
Availability has also been affected by the sale of social rented
property, which has accelerated quite markedly over the last three
or four years. ODPM considered that around 22,000 potential re-lettings
of social housing units would be removed each year if annual Right-to-Buy
sales remained in the region of 70-75,000.[12]
8. The Barker Review of Housing Supply noted that
whilst there had been a considerable increase in spending on social
housing (from £800 million in 2001-02 to over £1.4 billion
in 2003-04) rising land prices and the need to improve existing
stock meant that the rate of new supply had continued to decline.
It had concluded that the number of new social and affordable
homes would have to rise by at least 17,000 per year in order
just to meet the flow of new needy households.[13]
9. The 2004 Spending Review provided for an increase
in expenditure expected to deliver an extra 10,000 social rented
homes by 2007-08. Further expenditure over the next three years
is expected to lead to the building of 75,000 new social housing
units and 40,000 subsidised low cost homes, as part of a wider
programme of measures to meet new and existing housing need, including
delivering 1.1 million new homes in the wider South East by 2016.[14]
10. Delays have been encountered in delivering new
housing units because of capacity constraints and the need to
identify where supply can best be located to meet demand. Increasing
social housing provision should be managed in a staged way, in
order to balance capacity to deliver with value for money.[15]
Pressure on social housing and subsidised affordable housing is
likely to continue at least into the medium term.
11. One of the impacts of the shortage of affordable
housing especially in London and the South East has been the use
of temporary accommodation to house those in priority need whilst
they wait for the local authority to find them a settled home.
The number of households in temporary accommodation increased
by almost two and a half times between 1997 and 2004 - from around
40,000 to over 100,000. The use of temporary accommodation is
heavily concentrated in regions that experience high levels of
general housing demand. London and the South East regions, for
example, account for almost 75% of all households in temporary
accommodation.[16]
12. ODPM's five-year plan "Sustainable Communities:
Homes for All" includes the aim of halving the number of
households in insecure temporary accommodation by 2010. But many
local authorities have entered into long-term leasing arrangements
with private sector landlords for temporary accommodation as part
of the drive to move families out of Bed and Breakfast accommodation.
If such arrangements are non-negotiable, local authorities will
find it more difficult to make significant moves away from the
use of temporary accommodation.[17]
13. In an increasing number of areas, local authority
housing departments retain strategic responsibility for meeting
housing need but social housing is provided and managed by Registered
Social Landlords (housing associations) or Arm's Length Management
Organisations. Some authorities told the National Audit Office
that such bodies at times refuse to provide settled homes to homeless
households.[18] ODPM
needs to establish how widespread this problem is.
2 22nd Report from the Committee of Public
Accounts, Homelessness (HC 477, Session 1990-91) Back
3
C&AG's Report, para 32 Back
4
Ev 17 Back
5
C&AG's Report, paras 1.12-1.13 Back
6
ibid, para 1.16 Back
7
Qq 38-39; Ev 16-17 Back
8
C&AG's Report, Figure 7 Back
9
Qq 56, 72 Back
10
C&AG's Report, para 10 Back
11
ibid, para 1.5 Back
12
Ev 19 Back
13
C&AG's Report, para 1.7 Back
14
Ev 19 Back
15
ibid Back
16
C&AG's Report, Figures 11-12 Back
17
Q 7 Back
18
C&AG's Report, paras 3.28-3.30 Back
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