Councils placing homeless kids in danger, MPs discover

Councils are exposing homeless kids to severe well being and safeguarding dangers by housing them in unsuitable non permanent lodging, an inquiry by MPs has discovered.

MPs mentioned a “disaster in non permanent lodging” in England had left a document 164,000 kids with out a everlasting dwelling.

The inquiry concluded many kids have been residing in “appalling circumstances” and struggling vital impacts to their well being and schooling in consequence.

In a report, the MPs urged ministers to ship extra inexpensive properties and take pressing motion to help households residing in non permanent lodging.

In England, some native authorities have a authorized obligation to help the homeless, together with offering non permanent lodging.

Momentary lodging is supposed as a short-term answer for these experiencing or prone to homelessness and might embody hostels and rooms in shared homes.

The inquiry was launched final yr by MPs on the Housing, Communities and Native Authorities Committee, which condemned the state of some non permanent lodging as “completely shameful”.

The inquiry heard proof of “egregious hazards” to kids, together with severe damp, mould, and mice infestations, and households residing in non permanent housing for years.

Florence Eshalomi, the Labour MP who leads the committee, informed the BBC proof exhibiting the deaths of 74 kids had been linked to non permanent housing “ought to shock all of us”.

“That ought to ship alarm bells ringing,” she mentioned. “What was most stunning as effectively was the truth that over 58 of these younger kids have been beneath the age of 1. The place have we gone fallacious?”

Eshalomi mentioned when she was a baby, she as soon as lived in non permanent lodging full of damp.

She mentioned: “I take into consideration what I went via as a teen and it pains me to suppose that a few years later now as an MP, I see that also occurring within the constituency I symbolize.”

In its report, the committee set out suggestions, together with requiring councils to test housing is protected for use as non permanent lodging.

One other key advice was the proposal to provide extra powers to the Native Authorities and Social Care Ombudsman, which investigates complaints in regards to the remedy of individuals positioned in non permanent housing.

In response to the inquiry, a authorities spokesperson mentioned the findings have been stunning, including that the federal government was taking “pressing motion to repair the damaged system we inherited, investing almost £1bn in homelessness companies this yr to assist households trapped in non permanent lodging”.

They mentioned: “Alongside this, we’re creating a long-term technique to deal with homelessness, driving up housing requirements and delivering the largest enhance in social and inexpensive properties in a era.”

In excessive circumstances, the ombudsman can ask councils to compensate folks whose complaints are upheld – and information shared with the BBC exhibits a marked rise in these payouts.

Final yr, the ombudsman upheld 176 complaints towards councils and really helpful 144 payouts in these circumstances.

The variety of payouts final yr – some price 1000’s of kilos – was larger than the 121 in 2022-23 and the 73 in 2021-22.

Sam Revell, a mum of three, acquired a payout of about £2,000 in 2023.

The ombudsman discovered a number of faults in the best way Bromley Council in London dealt with her request for non permanent lodging in 2022.

Sam mentioned she ended up homeless after separating from her accomplice and approached the council for assist.

“I could not pay money for an precise particular person to talk to,” Sam mentioned. “All my emails simply went unanswered.”

At one stage, she and her kids slept in a single day in her automotive after they had nowhere else to go.

“I believe the one factor as a mum or dad, you simply put a roof over your kids’s head,” Sam mentioned.

“That for me, is simply fundamental, and I could not even do this. I bought a very good job. I used to be in full-time employment, and the youngsters have been in class and every little thing.”

The ombudsman mentioned the council finally positioned them in unsuitable interim lodging, which was too removed from her kids’s faculty and her office.

“It was like 33 miles in complete and it took us form of an hour every method,” Sam mentioned.

Sam mentioned the council didn’t take account of her kid’s must proceed attending the first faculty the place she acquired specialist help.

She mentioned the flat itself was “horrendous” and claimed neighbours have been commonly taking medication close to her entrance door.

The ombudsman mentioned the council didn’t reply correctly to Sam’s stories about delays in getting repairs carried out on this lodging and incidents when she was threatened and bodily assaulted by neighbours.

Sam and her kids have been allotted different lodging in September 2022 however she needed to wait three months earlier than she may transfer in.

She accused the council of leaving her “in such a weak scenario that it was simply so harmful” and mentioned the expertise nonetheless impacts her kids to today.

A council spokesperson mentioned a nationwide housing scarcity meant providing homeless residents non permanent lodging they “would have chosen for themselves”.

The spokesperson mentioned: “We settle for that errors have been made on this case and prolong our apology to this resident, recognising the continued comprehensible disquiet this expertise has had.

“You will need to observe Bromley Council co-operated absolutely with the ombudsman’s investigation, which was two years in the past, and agreed with the proposed remedial motion, which has been absolutely carried out and classes have been learnt.”

Cameron Black, a spokesman for the ombudsman, mentioned the payouts recognise “the gravity of the injustice that is triggered to the people in these circumstances”.

He mentioned there was a rising however small variety of councils who’re proof against the ombudsman’s findings and proposals.

He mentioned the ombudsman is looking for extra powers to watch whether or not councils are assembly their authorized duties to help homeless folks.

The rise in payouts comes as councils battle to cowl the prices of their authorized obligation to help the rising variety of homeless households.

Native authorities spent round £2.29bn on non permanent lodging in 2023/24.

The Native Authorities Affiliation mentioned the size of the problem going through councils on non permanent lodging and homelessness “are immense”.

“Authorities wants to make use of the upcoming Spending Evaluate to make sure that councils are sufficiently resourced, together with by urgently rising the non permanent lodging subsidy,” mentioned Adam Hug, housing spokesperson for the LGA.