Government must treat homelessness with urgency during cost-of-living crisis

A new report published by Kerslake Commission states the cost-of-living crisis could have a ’catastrophic’ impact on homelessness if the government fails to act now. 

A group of experts from the housing, homelessness, health and political sectors made the warning after reviewing how the cost-of-living crisis could affect low-income people.  

The report assesses how to put an end to rough sleeping and makes recommendations on how to achieve this during the current economic crisis.  

These include: 

• Reintroducing a temporary ban on evictions, following Scotland’s announcement earlier this month. 
• Increasing the benefit cap and bringing benefits in line with inflation immediately rather than in April 2023. 

• Raising local housing allowances so they are in line with the bottom 30% of the market. 

In this latest report, the Commission tracks their progress on helping to end homelessness following the recommendations they previously made to help stop it last September, grading them green, amber and red. 

Overall, 27% of The Commission’s original recommendations were rated ‘green’, signalling they had been achieved.  

Commission Chair Lord Kerslake said: ‘The new Prime Minister has announced plans to cap average household energy bills at £2,500 a year from next month. And this, while welcome, is not enough. 

‘Failure to act could see this become a homelessness as well as an economic crisis and the results could be catastrophic; with all the good achieved in reducing street homelessness since the pandemic lost, and any hope of the government meeting its manifesto pledge to end rough sleeping by 2024 gone.’  

Rebecca Sycamore, Interim Chief Executive of St Mungo’s, said: ‘As a leading provider of frontline homelessness services we see every day the harsh reality of this financial crisis. 

‘We fully support the new recommendations made by the Commission and urge Liz Truss and her ministers to introduce these measures as a matter of urgency to prevent more people ending up homeless this winter.’ 

The report also contains several personal anecdotes about how the cost-of-living is affecting them. 

One St Mungo’s client, who is living semi-independently and manages their own finances, said they have had to resort to walking everywhere as they cannot afford bus fares, meaning they are walking 46,000 steps a day. 

‘Life feels hopeless, and something drastically needs to change,’ they said. ‘I don’t want my mental health to get worse or to end up ill in hospital because life if getting so stressful.’ 

Photo by Jon Tyson