Concerns for Portsmouth families facing homelessness after pandemic

Data from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has shown between April and June this year 349 Portsmouth households were placed in temporary accommodation – including 53 with children.

This meant 93 city children, who were homeless or at risk of homelessness, were living in accommodation ranging from private housing to B&Bs.

And per 1,000 households in the city, 3.87 were in temporary accommodation - above the average for England of 3.39.

However, housing activist and city councillor, Cal Corkery, believed more families could face homelessness after the second lockdown.

He said: 'The concern is not so much the current situation, although for the individual families who don't have the facilities they need it is really difficult, but when the courts reopen there will be a lot of families there for falling into rent arrears because of the pandemic.

'This will put additional pressure on an already stretched council service.

'And I know previously we have raised concerns over the length of time any one family stays in temporary accommodation. Legally there's supposed to be a six-week limit on families with children being in B&Bs and hotels but I have come across many cases where that's been exceeded significantly.'

It comes after Portsmouth was awarded a government grant earlier this year of £1.5m to house rough sleepers during the pandemic. And it was given a further £4.6m to advance a three-year plan to house the homeless.

Robert Jenrick, secretary of state for Housing, Communities and Local Government, said: 'The way we have protected rough sleepers from Covid-19 is widely considered to be the best in the world.

'At the start of the pandemic we launched Everyone In, which protected thousands of vulnerable people.

'That work hasn’t stopped and we’ve backed it with £700m.'

Across the south east there were 10,720 households in temporary accommodation between April and June, including 5,660 with children - or a rate of 2.82 families per 1,000.

Portsmouth City Council was approached for comment.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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