Housing crisis lifts homeless figure over 300,000

More than 300,000 people in England are homeless, with almost half of them children, according to new research. Housing advocacy group Shelter said the number of people who would spend Christmas without a home jumped by 14% year on year to 309,000, or one in 18 people. That figure includes 140,000 children. A record 279,400 of those were stuck in temporary accommodation, according to the charity’s annual survey. It also reported a 26% jump in rough sleepers to more than 3,000 on any given night. Shelter said this would be one of the most severe winters on record for homelessness, caused by a combination of skyrocketing rents, chronic under-investment in social housing and long-term net losses in social-rent homes. The FT (£)The Guardian