86, 520 households qualified for homelessness support from their councils between January and March alone. This is the highest number since these records began. Our Chief Executive Officer, Duncan Shrubsole, provides his response below.
“Yesterday’s statistics are a reminder yet again that homelessness is far too high across England. Behind every statistic is a person, a family, a life on hold or worse due to lacking a safe, secure and stable place to call home.
At St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity, we help over 8000 people each year into safe homes, by enabling them to directly access suitable accommodation or preventing their eviction through emergency grants. We also support hundreds of frontline workers helping people experiencing homelessness. They tell us that services are under huge pressure, and there is just not enough accommodation that is available and affordable.
We need this new Government to act on its Manifesto commitment to tackle homelessness. It needs to ensure it develops and implements a comprehensive plan to build the social homes we need, to improve the private rented sector and to fund high quality support services in every area, to prevent and resolve homelessness.” Duncan Shrubsole, Chief Executive Officer, St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity
