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The Cost of Living Crisis Makes Homelessness Inescapable

As Household bills continue to soar, lower-class households could be forced to spend nearly 58% of their incomes on bills alone, for many already without stable housing the idea of affording a place to live is now both unrealistic and near unattainable. 

According to the latest information from the Joseph Rowntree foundation a single person needs to earn at least £25,500 a year to reach a minimum acceptable standard of living. While households with an average median income of £33.900 annually can expect to pay an average of 25% of income on rent, the lowest-earning fifth of the population earns on average only £14,6000, spending 58% of income on housing prices alone according to the ONS.

Earlier this year, the Government also withdrew many COVID-19 homelessness prevention measures that kept vulnerable people off the street. The 'Everyone In' scheme alone saw 37,000 people experiencing homelessness and sleeping rough moved into emergency accommodation according to Crisis.org, however as the scheme ends it is expected at least 9000 members of the public that were housed as a result of the 'Everyone In' scheme will return to sleeping rough without further aid.

Due to the cost of living increase and the removal of critical aid, the Government’s latest statistics now estimate that (despite the Conservative Party's promise to "end the blight of rough sleeping" by 2024)  72,210 households were assessed as homeless, up 1.3% from last year, and that 33,570 further households were assessed as being threatened with homelessness, up 5.1% from last year. If this remains unchained, the country can expect a further 7,365 households to become homeless by 2024.

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