Peterborough charity makes funding pledge as homelessness rises
Labour has said "urgent action" is needed
A homeless support charity in Peterborough has said more help for services like them can go at least some way to tackling homelessness.
Figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show between January and March this year, 187 people were recorded as homeless in the city compared to 153 the same period last year.
In Cambridgeshire, homelessness rose by 38 for the first three months of last year to 553 for the same time in 2024.
Calls for more investment
Steven Pettican is the CEO of Light Project Peterborough, which between 2023-24, saw 820 people come through its doors for support compared to around 25 per cent less in the previous 12 months.
"There's a number of community groups across Cambridgeshire that work very hard to get, maintain and not lose that accommodation and there's very little investment in those community support services," he said.
"What that means is we might need to find more money to increase our services, but we're not able as much as possible to give that one person that individual attention they really need."
"People aren't just numbers on a spreadsheet"
Mr Pettican also thinks higher bills for people living in temporary accommodation is not helping prevent people from becoming homeless.
"Very simple words like hope and love and making people feel part of the community are very important; people aren't just numbers on a spreadsheet," he added.
"Hundreds if not thousands of people in Cambridgeshire in temporary accommodation are quite stuck because if they were to move into work, their rental fees would be very expensive in terms of what they're getting."
Children living in temporary accommodation hits new records
Data from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government showed there were 151,630 children living in temporary accommodation in England at the end of March, an increase of 15% with the end of March last year.
It's also the highest figure since this measure began in 2004.
Temporary accommodation is a form of homelessness and can include people living in hostels or bed and breakfasts.
A total of 117,450 households were in this situation during the same time, while the number of households in this type of accommodation has risen each quarter in the last two years and up by 24% on 95,000 in early 2022, according to the figures.
"I think we need to take a step back and go 'oh my word, what is happening?'," Mr Pettican added.
"Somebody's got to do something somehow; in terms of if we're going on a positive journey (to tackle homelessness), I think time will tell."
Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary, Angela Rayner, Deputy Prime Minister and housing secretary, said: "We are facing the most acute housing crisis in living memory and homelessness remains at record levels. This is nothing short of a national scandal.
"Urgent action must be taken to fix this.
"Work is already under way to stop people from becoming homelessness in the first place.
"This includes delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable homebuilding in a generation, abolishing Section 21 'no fault' evictions and a multimillion-pound package to provide homes for families most at risk of homelessness."