News article
Ministerial homelessness report a “missed opportunity”
Crisis has branded a new government report that aims to tackle rising homelessness a 'missed opportunity'.
The charity has said the Ministerial Working Group report, Making Every Contact Count, fails to address the key issues of: lack of support for single homeless people, the impact of welfare cuts and the desperate shortage of housing.
Crisis, the national charity for single homeless people, has highlighted that the report is released on the same day as shocking new statistics reveal:
- rising evictions
- increased cases of councils needing to step in to save people from homelessness
- falling house building
Leslie Morphy, Chief Executive of Crisis, said: “This report is a disappointment and a missed opportunity. It contains some worthy ambitions, but lacks detail about how they will be delivered and fails to tackle the key issues. As the Government’s own statistics make clear, homelessness and evictions are continuing to rise yet new house building is falling.
“We needed a housing policy revolution that would guarantee no homeless person is turned away without the help they need, a rethink of damaging welfare polices and a dramatic increase in housing supply.”
Overall eviction court orders for the last 12 months (Q3-Q2 2011/12) stood at 100,825. This is up 7,509 or 8% on the previous 12 months figure of 93,316.
The total number of cases of homelessness prevention or relief increased by 5 per cent when compared to 2010-11
Government statistics show annual housing starts totalled 98,670 in the 12 months to June 2012, down by 10 per cent compared with the year before.