Peterborough charity says homelessness rise 'very worrying'
It's seeing new people needing help every week
A Cambridgeshire charity has said a rise in homeless people needing their help is a concern.
Figures from charity Shelter found more than 23,030 people, including 11,490 children, in the East of England were homeless on a given night this year.
Light Project Peterborough - which supports rough sleepers and homeless people - has seen between 300 to 400 people asking for its help this year.
Last month, the service saw 275 different people needing support.
Steven Pettican's the charity's CEO:
"Every week, I see new people (presenting themselves as homeless), which is very worrying," he said.
"The answer (to tackling homelessness) lies within local authorities talking to local communities more so, talking to people who are homeless and trying to integrate them into finding solutions rather than a top down policy level approach."
What's the national picture?
Nationally, Shelter found one in 160 people were estimated to be homeless in England on a given night this year, 14% higher than its 2023 estimate of 309,550 people.
But it warns its figure of 354,016 is likely to be an underestimate as some types of homelessness, such as sofa-surfing, go unrecorded.
The charity blamed "extortionate private rents" and a "dire lack of genuinely affordable" social homes for "trapping" more people in homelessness.
"It's unimaginable that 354,000 will spend this winter homeless - many of them forced to shiver on the wet streets or in a mouldy hostel room with their entire family," Polly Neate, chief executive at Shelter, said.
"Across England, extortionate private rents combined with a dire lack of genuinely affordable social homes is trapping more and more people in homelessness.
"Parents are spending sleepless nights worrying about their children growing up in cramped and often damaging temporary accommodation, as weeks and months turn into years without somewhere secure for them to call home."
More opportunities for homeless people
The latest figures, published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government this month, showed there were 123,100 households in England in temporary accommodation in the three months to the end of June - a rise of 16.3% on the same period the previous year.
Mr Pettican believes "a greater thrust" in developing better relationships between support services and young people could help prevent more people from becoming homeless.
But he believes more opportunities for people with lived experiences of homelessness should have a stronger say in finding a solution.
"Have we got the balance between that top policy level and getting those people who are or who may be becoming homeless, getting them round the table enough constructively to say 'what are the solutions?'," he added.
"Start at that end with people with a lived experience and endeavouring more so for those who are making decisions, policymakers, to really put their money where their mouth is."
What does the government say?
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: "These figures are shocking and they show the devastating reality of the homelessness crisis which we have inherited.
"No-one should have to spend Christmas without a home and this Government is taking urgent action to get us back on track to ending homelessness, including committing £1 billion in funding to support homelessness services."
"We will go even further to fix these housing challenges by building the social and affordable homes we need as part of our Plan for Change."
The spokesperson added that Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner is chairing a new inter-ministerial group "dedicated to tackling the root causes of homelessness."