Despite the government’s temporary ban on eviction proceedings until at least June, Shelter continues to see families who urgently need somewhere to stay during the Covid-19 pandemic. Some find themselves in this position because of unlawful eviction by landlords and others because they need to escape violence and abuse. Refuge recently reported a 25% increase in calls to its National Domestic Abuse Helpline during the second week of lockdown.
Since lockdown, in line with government guidance, Shelter has, where possible, moved its face-to-face support to online and local telephone advice, so that those who need support can still access free and expert help. Shelter is receiving calls from desperately worried people, who cannot follow the public health advice because of the accommodation they are in. Despite this difficult situation, its frontline teams are working harder than ever to ensure those in need of support can access it.
England’s housing emergency means there were already a growing number of homeless families living in temporary accommodation, such as hostels, B&Bs and converted office blocks, before the pandemic struck. Many are lone-mother households: more than two-thirds (69%) of homeless families with children living in temporary accommodation are headed by a lone parent, the vast majority (93%) of whom are mothers. Temporary accommodation can mean the whole family living in one room with shared facilities.
London has the highest number of homeless families, with 71% of those in temporary accommodation placed there by London boroughs. Chantelle Louise Welsh from Borough and Bermondsey in south-east London is typical of the women who contact Shelter when they find themselves in dire circumstances as a result of the housing emergency.
She was statutorily homeless for a year with her then 14-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son. She had previously rented social housing, but because of an acute lack of this type of housing, there were long waiting times for her to move away from the poor living conditions and antisocial behaviour where she lived. So, she decided to take a private rental which offered a better-quality home, and safer environment to raise her children. They found a flat, which became their home for five years, but when the tenancy ended they were left unable to find anywhere else they could afford.
While staying with family, she applied for assistance from her local council. A string of unsuitable offers of temporary accommodation followed, some with broken facilities and disrepair, others many miles from her children’s school and her work as a travel consultant. She was at her wits’ end when she decided to reach out to Shelter.
“They threw me a lifeline when I was in a dark place,” she says. “Prior to that I was feeling isolated, suicidal and totally hopeless trying to find somewhere suitable to live with my children.”
Along with online information and a helpline, Shelter offers local advice, support and legal services through its London hub; one of 12 across England. These hubs offer a range of services and long-term support to people with housing problems, including those who are homeless, or at risk of homelessness. Shelter also offers help via its specialist outreach projects in the boroughs hardest hit by the housing emergency, to families affected by it.
“London is huge and housing issues are widespread,” says London hub manager Hannah Norgate. “We found a high proportion of homeless lone mothers and families struggling in accommodation that did not meet their basic needs, so it made sense to pilot a comprehensive service to better support them.”
One of its most recent successes is Newham Family Action, set up by Shelter through funding and run in conjunction with The Magpie Project, Project 17, London Black Women’s Project, Kay Rowe children’s centre, St Stephens children’s centre and West Ham Lane health centre last year. Newham has the highest rate of people who are homeless across all local authorities in England, with one in 24 people in the borough regarded as homeless. Building on Shelter’s work throughout the borough, it offers community advice outreach sessions to women and children in key locations such as children’s centres and health centres. Since the Covid-19 outbreak, the service is providing support by telephone and it continues to take referrals from a range of community and statutory services.
“We work in partnership with other community organisations to address whatever needs our clients and their families might have,” says Norgate. “What makes a project like this so helpful to those in need is that it’s a partnership model, linking people with other specialist agencies to support the families’ wider needs.”
Since Newham Family Action was set up in April 2019 it has helped 238 adults and 441 children with issues including housing suitability, conditions and problems with landlords.
“We’re trying to expand the reach of the service to people who might not necessarily approach Shelter directly. We do that by working with other partners in the community. This is effective because they can exchange information based on individual needs, so families are being properly supported whatever their problem.”
After being offered only unsuitable accommodation by the local council, Chantelle turned to renting privately for a second time but as she was a self-employed single parent, she struggled to pay the high rent without adequate local housing allowance. After she hung on to their home for three years, she received an eviction notice from her landlord who wanted to sell the property and the family was once again without a home.
This is not unusual – many families cannot afford high London rents without support, due to a four-year freeze to the local housing allowance. The allowance covered only a small percentage of local rents at the very bottom end of the market. Many struggled to find somewhere available when they needed it, and even if they did succeed, this is the part of the market where the worst landlords and conditions prevail.
In response to the charity and others consistently highlighting problems with the local housing allowance, the chancellor recently announced that rates would be restored to cover the bottom third (30th percentile) of local rents, as they did in 2011. While this will help struggling claimants, it still means that families who need to claim benefits while in homes on average local rents will be accruing arrears because they are unable to work or move during this unprecedented public health crisis. And many families will see no increase because they hit the benefit cap.
To prevent further homelessness as a result of the pandemic, Shelter is calling on the government to restore the rates to cover average rents and for the benefit cap to be lifted. This would protect the people who, as a result of the pandemic, can’t work the required 16 hours a week to avoid the cap.
Many households in London have a large shortfall because there is a gap (of up to £1,200 a month for a two-bedroom home) between the local housing allowance and average rents, which they must make up from income meant for other essentials, such as food and energy bills, or go into debt to pay. Thousands also have their local housing allowance benefit-capped.
It’s important that people pay an average local rent, so that those who can’t work or who see a drop in earnings during the pandemic aren’t falling into arrears. Otherwise, it’s likely they’ll face eviction when the ban on court possessions comes to an end. This will put an even greater strain on council homelessness services, and lead to more people sofa-surfing or sleeping rough, when they are still at risk from the virus.
With Shelter’s advice and representation from its solicitor Rose Arnall, Chantelle was offered suitable help from the council in August last year. Faced with court action, it accepted her homeless application and placed her in more suitable accommodation locally last November. She is now finally settled and continues to run her home-based travel agency services and also runs her own cleaning business.
“When I spoke to the Shelter adviser he was very kind, patient and informative. For the first time in eight months I didn’t feel judged and misunderstood. I used to leave the council in tears,” she says. “With Shelter’s advice, I felt safe and secure. I can’t thank them enough.”
“Chantelle’s case is typical of what we see across the entire country,” says Norgate. “Many families are homeless because they can’t afford a suitable home, especially when they are a lone-parent family with only one income. Now, with Covid-19, we are being contacted by desperate people who have lost employment and are rapidly getting into arrears.
“We do our best to improve the lives of people caught in these situations, but the only way to prevent people from eviction and homelessness is to raise local housing allowance rates, so people can afford to pay average local rents while they are at risk from the pandemic.”
In the meantime, Shelter’s frontline services teams are working relentlessly to help those in need. “One of our advisers was sent a lovely thank-you letter recently, from a lady who’d been forced to leave her hostel. She was pregnant and facing domestic violence, and her situation was even more difficult due to the pandemic. The adviser helped her find a settled home and made sure she was supported,” says Norgate. “Knowing we’ve been able to help, especially in these unprecedented circumstances, is incredibly important and makes all our efforts worth it.”
Head to england.shelter.org.uk to find out about Shelter’s range of information and advice
