Shelter and the NASUWT teaching union have joined forces to warn that “sky-high private rents” are helping to drive a surge in homelessness this Christmas.

New research from the housing charity and the union suggests that more than half of state-school teachers in England — 52% — have taught pupils who were homeless at some point in the past year.

Shelter stated that a record 175,025 children are currently living in temporary accommodation, leaving many without a stable home and facing exhaustion, disrupted schooling and deteriorating mental health.

In its statement the Charity says

• Three quarters (76%) of the teachers who responded said that being homeless had led to children performing poorly in assessments or exams;

• Nine in ten (92%) respondents said children experiencing homelessness have arrived at school tired. The fact families living in temporary accommodation are routinely placed out of area resulting in longer school journeys, and children often share beds with parents or siblings are both likely to be contributing factors;

• Over eight in ten (83%) said that children have missed days of school. It can be very challenging for parents to get children to school while living in temporary accommodation as they can be moved around from place to place at very short notice; and

• Three quarters (75%) said that homelessness has had a significant impact on the mental health of the children they teach. 

According to both organisations, the combination of insufficient social housing, escalating private rents and the housing benefit freeze is driving these issues.

Sarah Elliott of Shelter, says: “The housing emergency is infiltrating our classrooms and robbing children of their most basic need of a safe and secure home. Children shouldn’t have to try and balance their studies with the horrific experience of homelessness.

“Teachers are witnessing the same devastating effects of growing up in temporary accommodation on children that our services see every day. Feeling cut off and isolated, children are showing up to school exhausted after long commutes from accommodation that is many miles away. Others are struggling to concentrate whilst dreading another night in a cramped B&B room where they have no space or privacy to study for crucial exams.

“With the public’s support, Shelter’s frontline services will keep doing everything possible to support families facing homelessness this winter and beyond. But to protect children from ever experiencing the harms of homelessness, the government must ramp up the delivery of genuinely affordable social rent homes by setting a national target for delivery. We need 90,000 social homes a year for ten years.”

The NASUWT General Secretary, adds: “Homelessness is taking an enormous physical and emotional toll on children and young people, which is adversely affecting their education and ability to learn.

“These children’s future life chances are being put at risk due to their lack of a secure, safe and permanent home. If their education suffers now, that is likely to have repercussions which could potentially last a lifetime.

“Teachers and school leaders are pulling out all the stops to help mitigate the effects of homelessness on these pupils and their families, but they cannot fix our national housing crisis. The government needs to go further and faster to make sure that no child’s opportunities in life are blighted by the lack of a safe and secure place to call home.”

Perhaps Shelter should look at its involvement in demanding the government to add even more changes to the Renters Rights Bill to attack private landlord sector in seeing how they have a hand in raising rents.