Decade sees 20 percent rise of children in temporary accommodation

This Christmas there will be over 82,000 children housed in temporary accommodation which would represent a rise of 20 percent in the past decade.

The Conservative Party’s Grant Shapps, the shadow housing minister, said that the failure to place a roof over the heads of these children permanently was yet another case of the failing Labour government, adding that the numbers highlight a continued distancing between the rich and poor.

The report from the Tories will be published today and, according to Shapps, the total number of children that will wake up in temporary accommodation on Christmas day will be 82,780. Shapps claims the figure is based on statistics made public earlier this month by local government and community departments that revealed a 20 percent rise in temporary accommodation numbers since studies were first undertaken back in 1998.

In addition to the forecasted figures, the report further claims that poor health is likely to be doubled among children in temporary housing when compared to others, and that some 33 percent are not able to attend any school. In the past 12 months alone, the 6,000 families who finally left their temporary accommodation had been there for at least three years.

The SNP also used the findings to highlight the fact that the UK Border Agency has detained 1,315 children in detention centres across Britain in the past 15 months.

All agree that Christmas is a time of year for family togetherness and that solutions were required to combat homelessness regardless of the event.