The homeless crisis: no place like home

Up and down the country each day, families present as homeless to their local authorities. These families need somewhere to live, and fast. Many end up in so-called “temporary accommodation”. In recent years, this situation has spawned a profitable – if controversial – industry for a handful of companies that aim to provide accommodation on the council’s dollar. The question is, should private firms be providing this vital public service? And how can local authorities work with them to provide emergency homes for some of society’s most vulnerable people? In Hackney, east London, the problem has become almost overwhelming. The council estimates that the housing waiting list is 13,000 households strong, and as the area has gentrified, prices have increased and many have found themselves at the sharp end of the housing crisis. As a result, the council often houses families in privately run hostels on a “temporary” basis, although in reality many are there for years at a time. Hackney councillors approved the latest hostel scheme in the borough just last month. The 292-bedroom hostel for homeless families in Haggerston will be built by Blue Chip Trading and property developer Hezi Zakai, and fitted with workstations, a launderette, 24-hour security and free Wi-Fi. It sounds like a viable solution to a substantial problem. But some councillors have expressed concerns that the facility will fail the people it is designed to help. Labour councillors Polly Billington and James Peters suggest the council will pay up to £4m annually by being charged £256 a week to temporarily house each family in the 11-storey block. In a letter to the council’s head of planning, Ian Rae, last month they claim residents at Metro and St Peter’s Way hostels next door – also owned by Blue Chip Trading – have told them about “substandard” living conditions there. “We can’t stand by and allow them to be reproduced in a new, larger hostel,” they wrote. “Our principle and overriding concern is for the welfare of the people who will be staying in the hostel. “What we want to avoid is a private party making very considerable profits from the misfortune of our fellow citizens who can no longer afford the rocketing rents in Hackney. We certainly want to avoid that private party profiting but not ensuring decent living conditions for the who will live in the hostel.” EG could not reach Blue Chip Trading for comment. A report from the London Assembly found that councils in the capital are struggling to find an alternative. “Councils do not have enough suitable property themselves, so are spending more and more on expensive, nightly paid private rented housing. The quality of temporary housing can be poor, cramped and insecure, with little chance of gaining long-term social housing,” the report found. The situation is borne out of desperation: sources in the housing sector tell of families appearing at council offices with their belongings in bin liners. The situation is ripe for exploitation by companies that can charge councils more than the going rate for accommodation at short notice – the very opposite of working together to solve the problem. And it isn’t just London where this is an issue: according to the latest government figures, the number of households living in temporary accommodation in England is around 84,740 – the highest level in more than a decade. As well as purpose-built hostels, the situation has also seen temporary homes being built in offices which have been converted to residential properties under permitted development rights. Councils are under pressure not to house families in bed and breakfast accommodation, where they have to share facilities such as kitchens and bathrooms with other residents. Office blocks turned into studio flats with their own facilities initially look like the perfect alternative but housing charity Shelter is concerned that in reality, families are housed in tiny spaces. It believes the problems with accommodation blocks being developed through permitted development rights are two-fold. “PDR gives developers free rein to convert office blocks into homes and allows them to sidestep local planning rules. Not only are the homes created often cramped, poor quality and in dangerous locations, there’s also no requirement for developers to provide their fair share of affordable housing,” Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, explains. It’s high time the government prioritised building high-quality and secure social homes, instead of relying on dubious schemes that are failing to deliver the homes local people actually need and want to live in Polly Neate | Shelter Although families do have their own kitchen or bathroom, they are often limited to one room, which can be hard on parents with small children and teenagers. Shelter is also concerned these blocks are managed by third-party brokers who act as leasing agents between the landlords and councils. This means there is little oversight of the conditions of the homes or the behaviour of the residents on a day-to-day basis. “With the housing emergency getting ever more desperate, it’s incredibly worrying that more councils are having to resort to using these converted office blocks as temporary accommodation for the growing number of homeless families turning to them for help,” Neate says. “It’s high time the government prioritised building high-quality and secure social homes, instead of relying on dubious schemes that are failing to deliver the homes local people actually need and want to live in.” However, there are blocks converted through PDR which appear to have been successful. Barry Jackson Tower in Birmingham had been due to be demolished, until the city council stepped in to turn the 1970s office building into temporary accommodation. The council spent £11m upgrading fire safety measures and adding facilities with the help of contractor Wates and turned the block from an eyesore into a functioning residential building. Now it can house up to 160 families at any one time. Sharon Thompson, cabinet member for homes and neighbourhoods at Birmingham City Council, says every month the council receives an average of 600 new homeless applications. “We know one of the biggest drivers for this is tenancies ending in the private rented sector,” she says. In 2017, the council looked at alternative ways of tackling the crisis, exploring the idea of using some of the city’s obsolete buildings and converting them into what it describes as “bespoke, well-designed temporary accommodation”. This would give families a safe place to stay and also connect them to support to help them find a permanent new home, Thompson says. “With social housing stock continuing to be depleted as part of the Right to Buy scheme, the cost of rents in the private sector increasing and with 13,000 people on our housing waiting list, it’s vital we continue to push ahead with our own housebuilding programme but also ensure private developers are doing their part in delivering affordable housing in Birmingham.” It has also converted Magnolia House, a former care home, into temporary accommodation at a cost of £5m. It now houses 55 families. It seems inevitable that councils will have to continue to work with private companies to house families in need for years to come, but working together to improve conditions, pricing and the speed at which people can move on, could solve the problem faster.