Homelessness

There are 282,000 people currently classed as homeless in the UK, according to the national charity for homeless people, Crisis1. To help tackle this, award-winning housebuilder The Hill Group set out a mission to donate 200 purpose-built modular homes that would provide people experiencing periods of homelessness with fully equipped, safe and secure single dwellings to live in before finding a permanent home.

Having cultivated a collaborative working relationship with Hill for several years, Vaillant specified and installed six of its aroTHERM air source heat pump units to Hill’s SoloHaus development in South Tottenham, London to help with the heating and hot water needs.

Whatever your stance is on Brexit, immigration compounding the housing shortage was an important motivating factor that led many people to opt out of the EU. The subsequent uncertainty has resulted in many EU nationals leaving the UK; has that made the housing crisis any better? Or was decades of chronic under investment from all political parties (sadly still prevalent today) really to blame all along? Housing Association Magazine Editor Joe Bradbury investigates…

Way back in December 2012, Prime Minister Theresa May claimed in an evocative speech that over a third of all new housing demand in Britain was as a direct result of immigration: “There is evidence that without the demand caused by mass immigration, house prices could be 10% lower over a 20-year period,” she commented.

201 housing associations have pledged to tackle homelessness by signing the Commitment to Refer, an initiative launched by the National Housing Federation in October 2018.

Following the introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act in October 2018, many housing associations expressed a strong desire to support the Act and work together with local authorities to tackle causes of homelessness in their community.

55% of homeless families trapped in temporary accommodation are actually working, according to new research released by Shelter’s social housing commission.

Based on freedom of information requests, the exclusive analysis shows that more than 33,000 families are holding down a job, despite having nowhere stable to live. This has increased by 73% since 2013, when it was 19,000 families.

This trend in ‘working homelessness’ is being driven by a combination of expensive private rents, the ongoing freeze on housing benefit, and a chronic lack of social homes.