New Government statistics released today reveal that households with someone with physical ill health or disability who are owed a duty by their local council to either prevent or end their homelessness has risen sharply by 14% in the last 12 months.  

Additionally, the number of people with physical ill health or disability whose local council have been unable to help prevent or relieve their homelessness under the Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA) and now are classed as priority need for housing has risen by 53%. 

Overall, the number of households found in priority need for housing has risen by 16%. 

Jon Sparkes, chief executive of Crisis, said: “Being without a safe and secure home, or being at risk of losing your home, is devastating. Under the Homelessness Reduction Act, duties are owed to help people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness – this steep increase shows not only the scale of people requiring help, but the challenges that people already face, on top of having no place to call home. 

“We need to see Government take action. The HRA is intended as a tool to prevent people from becoming homeless. But councils have to be given the resources and ability to exercise this to its full potential and we need to see transformative measures taken, such as restoring housing benefit levels to cover the true cost of rent and an increase in social housing being built, or we risk seeing these numbers to continue to rise.”