The number of local homeless families placed in emergency hotel accommodation has risen from zero to 104 in just 18 months, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

Families declaring homelessness are now often placed by the council in cheap hotels such as Travelodge — Families declaring themselves homeless are now often placed by the council in cheap hotels

Haringey Council has set out its plan to eliminate the use of bed and breakfast (B&B) accommodation for housing families amid a sharp spike in homelessness.

A new council report states that as of last month, there were 76 families and 28 single homeless people from Haringey being accommodated in commercial hotels – but before June 2022, B&Bs had not been used to house local homeless families “for over a decade”.

The definition of B&Bs includes any form of nightly paid temporary accommodation where there are no shared cooking or washing facilities – and often means cheap hotel rooms.

Denise Gandy, the council’s assistant director of housing demand, gave some insight into the authority’s plan to eliminate the use of B&Bs at a housing development and planning scrutiny panel meeting yesterday (Monday 18th).

She said the borough received around £8.6million in government funding yearly to support “homelessness prevention activity” but because the government was concerned with the increasing number of families living in B&Bs, it’s now a requirement to provide an elimination plan.

Denise said: “Any borough that’s got more than six families in B&Bs needs to do this; we’ve not been in this position before, it is a challenging position across London but we’ve submitted our plan to them.”

The elimination plan’s main focus is supply and using early intervention to help prevent homelessness, as well as exploring options to bring empty homes at Love Lane Estate back into use.

There are also proposals to increase the use of one-bedroom council properties as temporary accommodation and prioritise moves from hotels and short-stay hostels. Further measures include identifying vacant or council-owned buildings that could be used for short or medium-term temporary housing.

Labour councillor and panel member Alexandra Worrell asked how long the council had for “numbers to go down” before funding was affected.

Denise said: “We have a specialist advisor who works with us on our plan, they meet us monthly and we monitor progress with them.”

She added funding was set for this year and next and “they’re not going to take that away”, but the following year [2025] onwards the council was at risk of losing funding if they didn’t “get the numbers under control”.

Denise stated the government didn’t want to give money to councils to spend on B&Bs.

Labour’s Tammy Hymas also asked whether this new pressure would “negatively impact people” potentially leading to more homelessness due to the council trying to meet the funding targets.

Denise said: “A strong emphasis on our plan really is about other supply. We don’t want people to be in B&Bs not necessarily because government don’t want it, but because we don’t think it’s a good place for people to be.

“We think we will be vulnerable as long as we’re heavily reliant on a private sector that we can’t control.”

Sarah Williams, cabinet member for housing services, private renters and planning, supported Denise’s stance and said: “Being in B&Bs especially as a family is the worst situation for that family, so I think the driver isn’t just government pressure on us, it’s absolutely politically it’s a priority. I don’t want families living in hotels at all, if possible.”

No news is bad news

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, or one-off donation.