The number of people living in temporary accommodation in England has significantly increased, and North Yorkshire Council has had to pay millions to house them.
A new investigation has revealed that over 700 households were living in temporary accommodation in North Yorkshire over the past year, costing the council over £6.5m.
Figures obtained by Personal Injury Claims UK found that, in 2023/24, 715 households were living in temporary accommodation in North Yorkshire.
Temporary accommodation (TA) is the term used to describe accommodation secured by a local housing authority under their statutory homelessness functions.
The data comes in light of the news that, across the UK, the number of homeless people in local authority-provided TA rose to record levels.
In 2023, about 109,000 households in England – including 142,000 children – were in emergency housing between June and September, up 10% on the same period the previous year.
Back in 2021/22, the number of households in TA in North Yorkshire stood at 394, with a possible cause for this being the ongoing cost-of-living crisis forcing people to find other, cheaper places to live.
A year later, this number increased to 549, which is the second-highest number of people living in TA in the past three years.
Over the past year, the area has seen another rise in the number of TA residents, with the number standing at 715.
North Yorkshire Council’s corporate director for community development, Nic Harne, said:
Temporary accommodation spend across the country has been increasing for the majority of local authorities, elements of which are recoverable through housing benefit and personal rental payments by households.
On 31 March 2023 we had 213 households in temporary accommodation, which increased to 240 on 31 March 2024. Figures on 30 Sept 2024 were at 251 households.
The number of homeless assessments over the past year has increased by four per cent. One contributing issue to this is that households are contacting us regarding their housing situation when they are already at risk, and this hinders our ability to prevent their homelessness.
In September 2022, 51 per cent of households approached us when they had already lost their accommodation, this increased to 55 per cent in September 2023 and at the end of September this year it was up to 62 per cent. This means more and more households are needing temporary accommodation until a permanent accommodation can be found.
We support a range of prevention measures, however these have become more difficult as the private rented sector across the county has reduced alongside the availability of social homes becoming available to rent. The earlier we are made aware of issues the more we can do to help and reduce the need for temporary accommodation.
We are committed to reducing the number of households in temporary accommodation and in particular bed and breakfast. We are developing an extra 90 units of temporary accommodation to help reduce the reliance on bed and breakfast and expensive temporary accommodation.
We recently agreed to invest £2million in 11 homes in Scarborough for temporary accommodation and have agreed to an affordable housing development programme of 500 new homes.
We are also undertaking a homeless review and will be developing a strategy in 2025 to set out the main priorities and actions required to reduce homelessness. The strategy will aim to improve services and where, homelessness cannot be avoided, ensure that the journey from temporary accommodation to a new home is done as quickly and as efficiently as possible.
We are working closely with partners to ensure homeless prevention is at the forefront and people have the advice and support they need to get help before they become homeless.
