A new report by two charities reveals the scale of homelessness in Wales, with one in every 215 households now living in temporary accommodation.
The number of households living in temporary accommodation increased by 18 per cent in the year to March 2024 and the research by the Bevan Foundation and Shelter Cymru reveals the impact this is having on people and families.
For thousands of people this means being trapped living in hotels and B&Bs and on caravan parks. It means coping with a lack of cooking facilities, with inadequate facilities to wash and with a lack of space and privacy as entire families are cramped into single rooms – even sharing beds in some cases. Fundamentally, these are places that simply aren’t suitable, they say, and they are having negative impacts on health and wellbeing, employment and education.
Record numbers of people in Wales are now living in such accommodation. However, the charities say that local authorities often have no choice but to rely on temporary accommodation as the impact of a decades long failure to build the social homes we need is compounded by soaring rental costs, the wider cost-of-living crisis and a welfare system that all too often fails to protect those in need.
The new research, published today, emphasises the human impact of this crisis with people sharing their stories to help highlight the real challenges that they face every day.
As one person living in temporary accommodation told researchers: ‘I can’t keep going the way I’m going. My state of mind is deteriorating living here.’
The report highlights particular concerns about the impact on nearly 3,000 children who are living in temporary accommodation in Wales with their family. That’s nearly 6 in every 1,000 children (3,143), with a third of these having been stuck in temporary accommodation for over a year. Conditions are often not fit for children’s needs.
One father with school age children told researchers: ‘It’s not fair on the kids. My daughter doesn’t want to go to school anymore. She was having issues with other kids […] and she’s embarrassed about how we’re living. The kids can’t have friends over to this.’
With nearly 1,000 more households in temporary accommodation at the end of 2023/24 than at its beginning (966) and with only 30 per cent of households successful moved into suitable permanent housing during the year, the charities are calling for the Welsh Government to act urgently to give people a hope of home by boosting the supply of social housing.
Wendy Dearden, senior policy and research officer at the Bevan Foundation, said:
‘The human cost of our housing crisis is clear in the growing numbers with nowhere permanent to call home. We recognise that local authorities are doing the best that they can to help people, but a shortage of affordable homes for them to move onto is putting huge pressure on the system.’
Robin White, head of campaigns at Shelter Cymru, said:
‘Today’s report makes for harrowing reading, but what it says comes as no surprise. These are the stories we hear every day from the people coming to us for help, people who need a safe, secure, suitable and genuinely affordable social home but who are left with temporary accommodation as the only option because of a system that simply isn’t working. We know local authorities don’t want to be reliant on B&Bs and other expensive, short-term solutions. That’s why we need the Welsh Government to make tackling the housing emergency a cross-government priority and invest further in providing the social homes Wales desperately needs.’