North Yorkshire family shares "exhausting" experience of living in temporary accommodation
It's as the Government announce almost 1 billion pounds to tackle homelessness
Funding of almost a billion pounds next year marks a "turning point" in Government efforts to tackle and prevent homelessness, the Housing Secretary said.
Angela Rayner, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, described it as the "largest-ever investment" and said it would help "break the cycle of spiralling homelessness".
Homelessness, which includes people living in temporary accommodation, is at record levels.
The latest official figures, published earlier this month by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, 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.
There were 159,380 children in temporary accommodation between April and June this year, those statistics showed.
"It's been quite mind numbing to be honest"
Kirsty, her partner and four children have been living in a two bed unit since June after they were evicted from their home in Catterick Garrison because the landlord wanted to sell.
It means sharing a communal kitchen with up to 50 people: "It's been quite mind numbing to be honest most of the time, daily life, and little things that you take for granted, like putting the washing on or going to cook meal, just end up multiplying my stress levels because it's not just a case of I'll pop to the kitchen, I'll stick dinner on."
She says it's also taking a toll on her kids: "They're definitely struggling with not having their own private their own space and not having their belongings because 90% of everything we own is in a storage unit."
Kirsty says the Council have now offered her a property with hopes they can move in the Spring.
"Everything has been emotionally and physically draining and the day that we're handed the keys to our new house, I think I will just heave a massive sigh of relief and then probably sleep for a fortnight."
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said the country faces "the worst housing crisis in living memory" with some 40% of homeless families living in B&Bs or nightly-let accommodation, as the use of such emergency accommodation has doubled in three years.
The funding, from April, includes a more than £190 million rise in the homelessness prevention grant which aims to help councils prevent homelessness in the first place.
There are also millions towards rough sleeping, providing warm beds and shelter for people at risk of, or already, rough sleeping.
Five million will go towards emergency accommodation reduction pilots, working with 20 local councils that currently have the highest use of B&Bs for homeless people.