Good afternoon,

Today, we have launched a campaign called Find a place you can afford to raise awareness of the grim reality facing the thousands of homeless households in Brent and encourage families to take control of their housing situation and work with Brent Council to improve the situation for them and their families.

Despite building more new homes than almost any other borough in the capital over the past decade, Brent is facing a homelessness emergency. The words ‘crisis’ and ‘emergency’ can sometimes feel overused given the number of issues that are labelled this way at the moment but the situation in Brent with homelessness really is dire. It is now both a human and financial emergency.

Brent has experienced a 23 percent increase in the number of homelessness applications – up from 6,000 to more than 7,300 – over the past three years. Each week, an average of 140 households are becoming homeless in Brent. Of all homeless households, around half are trapped in very basic and costly ‘temporary’ accommodation.

Up until December 2021, we were making good progress in tackling homelessness and reducing our reliance on temporary accommodation. In 2012, Brent had 3,176 homeless households living in temporary accommodation, which was the largest number in the country. By December 2021, this number had reduced by more than 50% to 1,584. However, since then, the homeless emergency has spiralled due to factors outside of our control. Not only have private rents soared by nearly 34% in Brent over the past year, making rental homes even more unaffordable, there has also been a backlog of people being evicted since the pandemic, reduced supply of private rented housing and cost of living pressures, creating a perfect storm.

This is not a problem unique to Brent. Government data shows that London accounts for 57% of England’s total number of homeless households living in temporary accommodation. Around 175,000 Londoners – equivalent to one in 50 residents of the capital – are currently homeless and living in temporary accommodation arranged by their local borough. This figure includes one in 23 children, meaning on average there is at least one homeless child in every London classroom.

There are more than 34,000 families or individuals on our social housing waiting list.  Some have been waiting since the last century and they are still waiting. An average of just 650 council homes become available each year, with 40% of them being 1 bed properties, so this queue is moving very slowly and waiting times are getting longer as more residents become homeless.

This means that most homeless people will never get the council home they dream of and instead will end up in the private rented sector. In the current climate, this could be outside of London due to the sky-high rents in our capital city and lack of affordable housing. Sadly, the only real choice homeless people have is the route they take to get to find a privately rented home.

Rather than being stuck in basic temporary accommodation for years on end, which we know is not good for health or educational outcomes for children, we are advising homeless families to take control of their housing situation and work with us to find a place they can afford today. We will be able to help families financially to secure a home, ensuring that the rental property is safe and checking that it is affordable in the long-term.

This week, we have launched a video, information booklet and webpage with more information about the ‘Find a Place’ campaign. Learn more at www.brent.gov.uk/findaplace

We would appreciate your help and assistance sharing this information and these resources with local residents and service users you are in touch with, especially if you know anyone experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Thank you in advance for your support.