East Suffolk Council says it doesn't have enough housing to reduce homelessness
Between April and June of this year 1,380 households in the East of England were assessed as homeless
East Suffolk Council says, despite spending nearly £1 million pounds a year to help homelessness, it's still on the rise.
It comes as 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%), whilst 12% of people have slept rough on the streets in 2023 or knows someone who has."
The research also shows 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...
"If someone is reported as homeless they're immediately assessed and offered somewhere warm and safe to stay."
David did acknowledge though that there are a lot of "hidden homeless" people, meaning the figures could be higher than they are aware of.
The struggles Suffolk is facing
David continued, telling us they are "selling" social housing "quicker than they are able to build it."
He says this is something 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.
David tells us "the Chancellor did unfreeze local housing allowance which means the housing benefit will go up next year".
However, he's worried that it will freeze again, which would mean they wouldn't be able to continue building 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 says 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 a safe, secure home in a civilized society.
"We also need to bring up the local housing allowances."