Abuja – December 26, 2023 – Viewpoint Housing News.
An English rural charity reported on Tuesday that the number of homeless people in rural areas has increased by 40% in the past five years, with many of them sleeping in tents, the open, or improvised shelters.
Due to rising costs of food, electricity, rent, and mortgages, many Britons are finding it difficult to make ends meet in the G7 country and the sixth-largest economy in the world.
October 2022 saw a 41-year high of 11.1 percent for annual inflation. Although it has since dropped to 3.9 percent in November, charities claim that a number of reasons, including the previous ten years’ worth of welfare payment cuts and a housing crisis, have made food poverty and homelessness worse.
Homelessness in the countryside rose from 17,212 in 2018 to 24,143 in 2023, according to the CPRE charity, which advocates for affordable housing in rural England. The rise in home costs and stagnant incomes was observed in many regions.
The report stated, “The sharp increase in rural homelessness demonstrates the practical effects of record home prices, long waiting lists for public housing, and a boom of second homes and short-term rentals.”
According to the organisation, the number of persons rough sleeping exceeded the national average of 15 per 100,000 people in 12 local authorities in England, which are primarily rural.
The organisation said that the rural local authority in England most severely impacted by rough sleeping was the town of Boston, which is northeast of London.
According to the most recent month for which data is available, September 2023, there were 48 persons per 100,000 living in the town who were homeless.
North Devon in southwest England had 29 while Bedford, located north of London, had 38 per 100,000.
The organization said that, in contrast to those who sleep rough in cities, those who do so in rural regions are frequently concealed from view, camping in fields or taking refuge in farm buildings.
Additionally, it is less likely that they will have access to assistance. This indicates that the research, which makes use of data from the government, most likely overstates the severity of the issue.
According to the organization, 300,000 individuals in rural England, where the typical property sells for almost £420,000 ($535,000), are waiting for social housing.
The Shelter charity, meanwhile, said levels of homelessness across England this Christmas are likely to be 14 percent higher than last year.
According to the prediction, 309,550 persons were homeless on any given night in 2023, with the majority staying in temporary housing.
This is an increase above its 2022 annual report forecast of 271,421.
The organisation attributed the situation to a housing emergency but cautioned that there may be more “hidden homelessness” in the form of couch surfing.
The largest food bank network in the UK, the Trussell Trust, said last month that as poverty increased throughout the nation, the amount of food parcels given to those in need had reached “unprecedented levels.”
It said that, between April and September 2023, it had given out 1.5 million emergency food boxes to individuals, a 16 percent increase over 2022 and the most number it had ever given out at this time of year.
It stated, “We have had to distribute more food parcels in a six-month period than we have ever had to.”
“This winter is going to be the worst we have ever experienced,”
