People without dependent children who have received outright possession orders (and so are at imminent risk of eviction) for rent arrears (so the risk is not because of their behaviour).

The accommodation is insecure because someone who receives an outright possession order will cease to have a legal right to occupy their house within 28 days. Homelessness legislation states that someone is homeless if they are threatened with homelessness within 28 days.

High - those facing eviction would, if they applied, be accepted as homeless as they are threatened with homelessness within 28 days.

People with dependent children can, in principle, apply to their local authority and be classified as homeless and in priority need. In contrast, people without dependent children would be deemed intentionally homeless if they were facing eviction for rent arrears, and unless they have a specific vulnerability, would not be considered to in priority need.

Many of the people with dependent children will be considered as homeless and in priority need, as discussed above.

Around 10,000 people over the period of a year face imminent eviction for rent arrears.  This equates to around 1,000 at any point in time.

In 2006, around 17,000 households had their home re-possessed in the United Kingdom^[1].

Each year, around 11,000 households are evicted from social housing in England.^[2] No data is available on evictions from private rented accommodation but there estimated numbers are around 3,000 per year.^[3]  Scaling up these figures gives an estimated 16,000 households for Great Britain.

What proportion of these 33,000 (17,000 + 16,000) households should be considered to be at imminent risk of eviction at any particular point in time?  There are two reasons for saying that the answer is around 2,500 (28/365ths of 22,000): first, from a legal standpoint, a person is considered to be threatened with homelessness in England and Wales if it is likely that they will become homeless within 28 days (2 months in Scotland); and, second, possession orders typically take effect 28 days from the day of the Court judgement.

Of the 2,500 at imminent risk of eviction, what proportion should be considered to be hidden homeless?  It seems reasonable to only include households without dependent children as those with children they will be entitled to permanent accommodation from their local authority (assuming they apply).  Research^[4] suggests that around half of the households are households without dependent children, giving a final estimate of 1,250 who can reasonably be considered to be hidden homeless.

Various, as explained under the heading ‘issues related to the calculation'.

Medium - the estimate above is likely to be an underestimate because not all of the people with dependent children will apply to be classified as homeless but this would not affect the order of magnitude of the estimate.