Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch a hotspot for the homeless

413 people slept rough in the South West last Autumn

Author: Jamie GuerraPublished 4th Mar 2023

Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch is the local authority area with the 3rd highest number of rough sleepers in England, according to a GOV.uk survey.

64 people in the BCP area slept rough last Autumn which is more than double than the same time the previous year (29).

Nationally, rough sleeping figure rose by 26% on the previous year.

Lorraine Mealings, the CEO of the BCHA, blames the affordability of the private rented sector, the rising cost of living and benefit levels being frozen as a key reason for “the figures sadly going up.”

Lorraine said: “As an organisation we're buying properties ‘off the shelf’ and we’re trying to build more affordable homes because I think we need more affordable housing.”

Regionally, 21% more households in the Southwest spent time in temporary accommodation from June 2021 to May 2022.

Crisis, the national homelessness charity, found that the number of households in temporary accommodation is at its highest level in 18 years.

Matt Downie, the Chief Executive of Crisis, said “With almost 100,000 households stuck in temporary accommodation having been evicted from their homes, we’re on an extremely dangerous course.

“Many people are exposed, lacking what should be a basic legal protection.”

As it stands, the Bournemouth-based housing association’s service “are all full” despite demand continuing to rise.

Now, the BCHA are looking to increase the number of properties in their ‘portfolio’ beyond the current 1400 homes.

But the local housing association say, “It's getting more and more challenging to make sure our services are viable.”

Lorraine said: “We've got caps on our rents because we don't want to implement rents that our residents can't afford, but at the same time, all of our costs are going up, so it's becoming really difficult to balance budgets.”

The data also shows that more than 70,000 households nationwide were facing homelessness between July and September 2022.

Homeless charities have also stated that the number continues to rise due to the ‘no-fault eviction notice’.

Lorraine also noticed this trend in the BCP area, she said: “more people are facing potential eviction, so we desperately need more support services.”

She hopes the first rise in rough sleeping statistics since 2017 will force the government to take notice and pump funding into the sector.

Matt Downie added: “The fact that homelessness is once again on the rise is frankly shames our society and if alarms bells weren’t ringing across Government they should be now.”

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