11th
Oct 2019
At a time when a Tory donor has placed a £300 million bet predicting that the biggest UK businesses' share prices will plummet following Brexit, Shelter is gaining widespread media coverage.
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It is stating that three million people could be forced out of their homes within a month because they are one pay check away from being unable to pay their rent.
The government announced that is has already committed £400 million to tackle the ever-burgeoning rough sleeping and homelessness crisis.
Apparently just under half of working tenants living in BTL homes would only be able to pay their rent for one month if they became unemployed.
Zoe, a 44-year-old single mother, told Shelter: “I have two jobs, but I’m still in a precarious position. If for some reason I lost my job, I worry how quickly we’d end up homeless.
“I know it’s the same for thousands of other people like me – when you scratch the surface so many people are living month to month.”
The Children's Commissioner for England August report states that there are many thousands of homeless children who are having to face sleeping in guest houses and converted shipping containers, and are at considerable risk.
Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: “Millions of working people are caught in an endless cycle of paying grossly expensive private rents they can barely afford – with all the insecurity that brings.
“Many are terrified that even a short-term dip in income could result in them losing their home for good.”
Besides the government's £400 million commitment to reduce homelessness, it has also pledged to build an extra 250,000 affordable homes by March 2022.
Britain’s housing minister Esther McVey recently spoke to the Thomson Reuters Foundation and told them: “Our reforms have increased the amount of social housing stock by 79,000 since 2010.We’re committed to building the homes this country needs.”
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