More than 70,000 households made homeless since start of coronavirus pandemic

“No one should lose their home as a result of the coronavirus epidemic."

Over 70,000 households have been made homeless during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report from the Observer. When it became clear the coronavirus was going to cripple the economy, with business plunged into disaster and mass redundancies therefore inevitable, the government pledged to protect tenants from evictions, as housing minister Robert Jenrick posted on Twitter: “no one should lose their home as a result of the coronavirus epidemic." https://twitter.com/RobertJenrick/status/1243299372894486535 But the Observer claim to have obtained data that reveals 207,543 households approached their local councils between April and November last year to ask for help with homelessness or the threat of homelessness. This comes despite the government banning evictions for the past 10 months, with campaigners highlighting that the increase in people made homeless is largely due to friends and family no longer housing them during the pandemic.

Labour’s shadow housing secretary, Thangam Debbonaire, said: “The government promised nobody would lose their home because of coronavirus. These figures show that promise has been broken.

“Instead of last-minute U-turns and piecemeal homelessness support, the government needs to support renters, crack down on illegal evictions, and ensure nobody spends this lockdown on the streets.”

The Everyone In scheme that provided 15,000 rough sleepers with emergency housing at the start of the pandemic has not been renewed for the current, third national lockdown, it was revealed last week.