The Housing Crisis Drags On

We know that many people with mortgages are facing rising costs, making life difficult for both many owner/occupiers and for landlords letting their properties. For people renting, the private rented market is shrinking, with higher rents and more competition for remaining properties. Meanwhile, social housing supply completely fails to meet demand.
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So, many people are facing:

• Higher interest rates
• Higher rents
• Higher bills
• But often not equivalently higher incomes
• If on benefits, inadequate levels of Local Housing Allowance (Housing Benefit)

What this means is:

• More people, including families, who are homeless
• A higher proportion of working people amongst those who are homeless
• People struggling with bills, including for food and clothing

For people and organisations providing housing, costs have risen, too. At the same time, for private landlords there is more regulation for providing tenancies but the lure of more lucrative holiday lets for some, dragging accommodation away from being for housing to being for holiday use.

All of this means a culmination of factors that are increasing homelessness in Britain.  It’s the reality of the housing crisis and has no obvious end in sight. There are, however, things that the government can do to help and that would include looking at the benefit levels, including the amount set for the housing element which is currently falling woefully short of actual market rents across the country.

At the same time, all these factors make us even more grateful for the landlords we work with who don’t push their rents to the maximum level of “market rates".  We’re also grateful for the other charities working to support people through the cost of living crisis (Soup Run, Plymouth Foodbank, Plymouth Provide and the like) who make life for our clients that bit more manageable, sitting alongside what we and our Alliance partners do.