A new statistical release from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities was released on 22/09/2022, providing a comparison between the statutory homelessness staistics between 2020/21 and 2021/22. Key findings include:
- A total of 278,110 households were owed a homelessness duty in 2021-2022. This is an increase of 3% from last year.
- The end of the ban on evictions is clearly having an impact, with more people at risk of homelessness coming from the private rented sector, up 57% to 56,000 households.
- There has also been a huge increase due to s21 no-fault eviction, which is up 121% to 19,790 households.
- More working people are facing homelessness, also up 16% to 68,010 households, as are families, which has also increased by 24% to 93,290 households.
Responding to the statistics, Fiona Colley, Director of Social Change at Homeless Link, said:
“The huge rise in the number of private sector evictions leading to homelessness is alarming, as is the number of people in work being threatened with homelessness. Both show how the economic pressures we are facing are pushing more and more people to the edge, as the pandemic protections ended.
“But the cost-of-living crisis has exacerbated, rather than caused this issue. The Conservative Government first outlined its plan to ban ‘no fault’ section 21 evictions in 2019, yet nearly 20,000 households had to seek homelessness assistance last year due to receiving an eviction notice through no fault of their own. The Government must bring through the full reforms outlined in the recent rental reform White Paper in the current parliament to help prevent a further surge in homelessness.”