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When Sidney was placed in temporary accommodation, he thought it would be for a few weeks. Ten years on, he’s still there.
The number of homeless households in temporary accommodation in England hit a record high in December 2023, reaching 112,660 – up 12% in a year – and includes 145,800 children. Designed as an emergency measure, these range from short-term private rentals to hostels and B&Bs.
Over the last decade, the number of social homes has fallen in the UK by more than 100,000, while private house prices and rents have soared. As a result, rising numbers of people are spending large portions of their lives in temporary accommodation. For some children, it’s all they’ve ever known. In March, The Guardian reported that some are spending their entire childhoods in temporary accommodation and that thousands of families had been housed in it for more than a decade.
The London borough of Newham, where Sidney (not his real name) lives, has by far the highest rates in the country. For every 1,000 households, 53 are in temporary accommodation. The London average is 17 per 1,000, compared with 2.4 households per 1,000 in the rest of the UK. According to data released under the Freedom of Information Act, they face an average stay of over four years.
This is putting a huge strain on already stretched council finances, with the bill in the capital collectively reaching £90 million a month, up 40% on the previous year. The cost to people forced to live like this is even worse.
Sidney is suffering from kidney failure – he’s been stuck in temporary housing for a decade. Last week he had a stroke
Sidney, 61, and his wife Jane were placed in temporary accommodation in 2014 along with their three children, a daughter aged 16, and twins aged 15. Their building, owned by Newham Council, has been earmarked for demolition under a multibillion-pound regeneration scheme for Custom House and Canning Town that was announced in the early noughties, but is yet to begin.
So far, the proposed redevelopment has shown signs of neglect rather than renewal with residents living in limbo and in deteriorating conditions, while plans are hashed and rehashed.
Sidney requires life sustaining home dialysis, due to kidney failure, and despite providing medical documents to the council, Newham has failed to take any steps to provide necessary adaptions to his home. Rooms in Sidney’s current home are too small to accommodate the dialysis machine; an extension or a bigger home is required.
“I’m waking up at 4am for the ambulance to pick me up three times a week, and each dialysis session is 4 hours which is quite depressing. It makes me feel less of a person not being able to manage my health condition with home dialysis.”
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Last week, Sidney suffered a stroke. He feels this would not have happened if he was receiving home dialysis. “I am now travelling home at 11pm after my treatment and this is when I am very weak and need to rest”, he says.
Patients who receive home dialysis have a better prognosis and life expectancy because they can manage their own dialysis and don’t have the extra exertion of travelling to and from hospital.
While the council is now looking for a 4-bedroom property for him, these are in short supply, and there’s no guarantee they will secure another property faster than adapting his 3-bedroom home. “I don’t want the stress of being moved again,” he says.
Residents are Fighting Back
Newham residents haven’t stopped fighting to get out of their temporary accommodation. For over a decade they have been organising under the banner of People’s Empowerment Alliance for Custom House (PEACH E16) to address the multitude of housing issues the community face.
In 2020, they won a hard-fought campaign to transfer hundreds of temporary tenants (managed by the notorious private landlord Mears) into council management. This result came with 60% lower social rents, but tenancies remained temporary. Last year, a petition signed by 90% of residents saw the council agree to invest in much needed repair and refurbishment of homes. Despite this, poor conditions persist.
On a cloudy Saturday, a group of PEACH members gather in a square in Canning Town to share housing advice and plan the next steps for their campaign. One of the biggest victories cited by the group is realising they are not alone. That’s tangible here. There’s food, childcare, and applause here and there for small wins.
The Mould is so Bad in Anne’s Home she Gets Constant Headaches
Among them is 50-year-old Anne (not her real name), who four years ago moved into temporary accommodation in Canning Town with her two sons. They were moved from south London, miles from their family and friends. Her teenage son – then just 12 – didn’t want to leave his school, so travelled an hour each way for two years.
“I thought, oh god where did we end up,” Anne says passing round photos of the ferocious damp and mould that plagues her home. “My son left an open packet of crisps out and the next day it was mouldy. It’s so wet in the building that my salt and spices get damp and clump together, after a week we can’t use them anymore.”
Living here is affecting their health with Anne saying she has developed brain fog, constant headaches and colds. “My nose is bleeding from blowing it so much and my voice sounds funny. My youngest son is always sick.” She has complained repeatedly to the council, but says they “only patch things up, never fix the problem, because they are planning on knocking it down.”
Temporary accommodation was a contributing factor in deaths of 55 children in England from 2019 to 2023. Of those 55 children, 42 were less than a year old. Twelve of the deaths were in London.
Helen Needs Spinal Surgery but is Stuck in an Upstairs Flat
Helen has been living in temporary accommodation for 11 years with her two children and has been moved three times. Most recently the family was relocated to an upstairs flat in the Canning Town regeneration zone, despite the 40-year-old requiring a ground-floor property due to impending spinal surgery. It’s 32 steps up to the front door and Helen will be in a wheelchair after the operation. “Even now the stairs are difficult” she says, adding: “I’m in pain all the time.”
The offer letter had incorrectly stated that the flat was a ground-floor property. “I was given a video tour and 24-hours to decide”, she recalls. “The council threatened to close the case if I didn’t accept it and told me to request a suitability review later.” One year on, despite a litany of phone calls and emails, this is yet to happen.
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Recently, the family was offered ground-floor temporary accommodation in Plaistow, but when Helen went to a viewing, it turned out to be an entirely different property in Canning Town. With no ground-floor toilet, it was unsuitable for Helen, but the council has yet again threatened to close the case if she turns it down.
Helen has been forced to delay her surgery date because of her housing. “If I don’t get an operation, my whole body will be paralysed. Who is going to look after my children if this happens to me?” she asks.
70% of Households in Temporary Accommodation Live in Poor Conditions
Newham’s problems are London’s problems, with the capital gripped by a worsening housing crisis. Research by the housing charity Shelter last year shows that 70% of households in temporary accommodation live in poor conditions. One in four waited more than eight weeks for an urgent repair. The issue is compounded by debilitating uncertainty for those at its mercy – they can be moved anytime at short notice.
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Many PEACH members have lived in “temporary” accommodation for over a decade, rendering the terms meaningless.
“Most of us are migrant mothers, carers and doing low paid jobs,” explains Betty, (not her real name) who has been in temporary accommodation with her two children for thirteen years.
“Temporary tenants have very little rights and the council have been exploiting this. It’s not by accident, it’s by design – we are not considered important enough.”
Newham Council has Promised Residents Permanent homes
The Mayor of Newham, Rokhsana Fiaz, promised PEACH members that they would be given permanent homes in the regeneration negotiations in 2020. However, there is a lack of clarity around eligibility for rehousing within the area for those in temporary accommodation. A community organiser with PEACH, explained that “residents in temporary accommodation have very few rights and can be moved out of the area at any time. If this happens, the council may not have a duty to provide what is promised.”
Redevelopment is expected to take decades, so PEACH is calling for the immediate transfer of all temporary council tenancies to permanent, secure council tenancies.
As Newham Council owns the housing, the organisation argues that the Mayor has the power to exercise discretion in exceptional circumstances as per the housing allocations policy. This would also be in line with the London Mayor’s strategy to tackle the crisis by buying back homes and bringing them under council ownership.
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A Newham Council spokesperson told Byline Times that the housing crisis is “impacting people and councils all over the country, and Newham is no exception”.
Despite Newham putting an additional £10 million into the 2023/24 budget, temporary accommodation costs are “soaring and continue to escalate, yet central government funding has not kept pace,” the spokesperson added.
The council, the spokesperson said, is “committed to doing all we can to support struggling households and ensure residents have a safe place to live which includes ongoing discussions with PEACH E16 to find acceptable solutions for their members’ complex housing needs at a very challenging time.”
Newham Council, the spokesperson added, has increased its temporary accommodation funding to £17.5 million in the 2024/25 budget alongside starting a “comprehensive cross-council Homelessness Response programme” as part of its efforts to “tackle this crisis”.
The council declined to comment on individual cases of those mentioned in this story.
Families Confined to Single Rooms
Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter blamed “decades of failure” to build enough social homes for “bringing the housing system to it’s knees”, while soaring rents and a lack of social homes is pushing more and more people into homelessness and “costing the government billions”.
She said Shelter regularly works with families “crammed into one room where children have no space to play, parents have nowhere to cook a meal and conditions are often harmful to health” and the only “solution” was for the next Government to “make the choice to end homelessness” by investing in social homes, “we need 90,000 a year for ten years”.