An unsafe room in a hotel or B&B is not a home.

How Crisis worked with Zahra to find a safe and secure home for her and her family

Zahra bedroom

"You don’t get a timeline or any sense of what’s going to happen next. I contacted Crisis because I was feeling lost and extremely frustrated. My experience made me realise how little support there is for people." 

Zahra
“I’d been in the hotel for more than six months and had no sense of when it would end. My autistic son was really struggling with the conditions. I contacted Crisis because we didn’t get the support we needed. Sophie, my Lead Worker, sent quite a few emails to the temporary housing officer, and she worked like an advocate.”


After more than six months in a mouldy hotel room, infested with cockroaches and bedbugs, Zahra said she felt “in the dark”.

An unsafe room in a hotel or B&B is not a home. But right now, the number of people trapped in insecure temporary accommodation is at an all-time high.

Thanks to your support, people like Zahra are able to get the expert help they need from our frontline teams, who advocate on their behalf, chase local authorities, challenge council decisions and help with paperwork. 

Without this, families like Zahra’s can remain stuck in dangerous conditions with their lives on hold. A safe home is the foundation families need for a decent life.  

Donate today

How your support helps people out of homelessness

Welcome

We offer new members initial needs assessments where we can talk through their situation and make a plan together. People can need a range of help from claiming benefits they're entitled to, to building their confidence and independence, or taking a qualification that could help them find work.

Wellbeing

Through group sessions and one-to-one therapy with clinical psychologists, your support helps members improve their mental and physical wellbeing. We work particularly closely with people experiencing complex mental health problems too, helping them get specialist help and accommodation as urgently as possible.

Skills

Members can access a vast array of courses and qualifications online - helping them take another critical step forwards. We also cover vocational skills, including retail and hospitality traineeships in our shops.

Employment

Across our services, we're seeing more people facing homelessness after losing their job during the pandemic. We're supporting people to find work, with specialist teams who connect people with employers, as well as help with CVs and interview practice.

Thousands of people are being forced into unsafe temporary accommodation


Crisis analysis reveals that the number of households trapped in temporary accommodation in England has almost doubled in just ten years, topping 112,000. This includes over 145,800 children.

Too often, families must try and live in one room with no cooking facilities or space. They don’t know when – or even if – the council will place them into a safe and secure home. Unsafe temporary accommodation can be debilitating for people’s physical health, as well as their mental health.

Decades of failing to build enough social housing and provide the support needed to end homelessness means thousands of people are currently without a safe home.  
Currently, more than a million households in England are on waiting lists for a social home. In Wales, 5,700 households are trapped in temporary accommodation while in Scotland, pepple are spending an average of 216 days in temporary accommodation, far beyond the legal 6-week limit. 

A safe home is the foundation on which people can build a decent life. It’s vital for good health and wellbeing. It makes it easier for people to succeed at work and at school, to maintain relationships with family and friends, and to contribute to their community. 

Please help us continue to address the root causes that push people into homelessness in the first place. Please donate today. 

Donate here


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