being pushed into the misery of homelessness by our housing emergency.
“Living in temporary accommodation can be a nightmare, especially when you have children with you;
there’s often nowhere for them to play or do their homework. Through our services, we talk to mothers who
are worried there is no space in their cramped, dirty room for their baby to learn to crawl.
“This crisis has been decades in the making thanks to a dangerous combination of sky-high rents, bone-
deep welfare cuts, and a drought of genuinely affordable homes. Serious investment in social housing is the
only way to solve this. The upcoming budget is a chance for the government to back social homes and
increase housing benefit so it covers the basic cost of rents.”
The total number of households living in temporary accommodation has also skyrocketed, from 50,400 in
2010 to 86,130 in 2019 – a rise of 70 per cent. Homeless people are offered temporary accommodation
while a permanent home is being located. Single women who have young children constitute 44 per cent of
all households in temporary accommodation, which is more than double the share of households with two
parents in such housing.
John Healey, the shadow housing secretary, said: “Housing is a feminist issue. The housing crisis affects us
all, but women are facing the biggest hardships. Labour’s housing plans would help women most when
they’re unable to afford to rent, to buy, or are forced to become homeless due to a domestic abuser.
“Labour’s national plan for housing would see a million new genuinely affordable homes, restoration of the
link between housing benefit and rents, and more social housing to provide a safe place for women and
families in need.”
Sophie Walker, chief executive of the Young Women’s Trust, said: “Single mothers’ homelessness is on the
rise because young women are more likely to be sole carers and locked out of work precisely because of
their unpaid work and caring responsibilities. This means they are more dependent on a welfare system that
has been squeezed hard by 10 years of austerity.
“The only way forward is to build a welfare and housing system that is designed in response to an
understanding of women’s needs and experiences. Meanwhile, the government can act swiftly to unfreeze
housing benefit, remove the shared accommodation rate for under-35s and fund refuges so every woman
experiencing violence has a safe place to go.”
Women are locked out of the housing market, and homes are unaffordable for them in every single English
region, a report by the Women’s Budget Group and the Women’s Housing Forum found in July.
Researchers found that women need more than 12 times their annual salary to be able to buy a home in
England, while men need just eight times their annual salary. Average rents take 43 per cent of women’s
median earnings, but they take just 28 per cent of men’s.
A representative for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has been contacted for
comment.