East Suffolk Council spending nearly £1m a year to tackle rising homelessness
Between April and June of this year 1,380 households in the East of England were assessed as homeless
Last updated 29th Dec 2023
East Suffolk Council have said they are spending nearly a million pounds a year to help tackle homelessness but it's still on the rise.
Leading homelessness charity, St Mungo’s, has found "this year a fifth of us have either been in temporary accommodation or know someone who has (21%)
" 12% of people have slept rough on the streets in 2023 or knows someone who has."
Research has also found that the number of people sleeping rough is up 26% this year, and up 74% since 2010."
According to research from the government, between April and June of this year, 1380 households in the East of England were assessed as homeless.
What about in Suffolk?
David Bevan, deputy leader of East Suffolk Council and Cabinet member for Housing told us they are doing well in addressing rough sleeping locally.
"We've reduced the numbers- we had 24 before COVID hit and then we had the 'Everyone In' campaign and last year we were down to 11."
He told us they are spending nearly £1m a year to combat this issue.
And that if someone is reported as homeless "they're immediately assessed and offered somewhere warm and safe to stay." before they address any issues they may have.
However, he did acknowledge that there are a lot of "hidden homeless" which means the figures could be larger than they are aware of.
The Struggles Suffolk are Facing
David told us they are "selling" social housing "quicker than they are (able to) build" social housing.
This is something the East Suffolk Council has tried to address and in July, their local council wrote a letter about "raising the local housing allowance because it's been frozen for four years."
This was signed by all the Liberal Democrat leaders in the country and then taken forward to the All-Party Groups.
Fortunately, "the Chancellor did unfreeze local housing allowance which means the housing benefit will go up next year". However, David worries that it will freeze again meaning they won't be able to continue to build houses.
Cost of Living
David told us he believes a contributing factor to the rise in homelessness is the increase in the cost of rent and that "People should not be spending 50% of their income on rent or to provide housing" as "that's when it squeezes all the other costs."
"we just need to pay people more and we need to guarantee people as safe, secure home in a civilized society.
"And we need to bring up the local housing allowances."