Last year alone Haringey received more than 4,000 homeless applications, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

Haringey Council says it will continue to address the borough’s housing crisis amid a £1.6million overspend on homelessness costs between January and March.

Last year alone Haringey received more than 4,000 homeless applications. This year, in March, 119 families were recorded as living in emergency bed and breakfast (B&B) accommodation such as hotels, compared to 103 in September 2023.

In terms of the average length of stay in B&Bs, this had reduced from 16 weeks as of November 2023 to twelve weeks in March.

Part of the local authority’s plan to address demand includes delivering 3,000 council rent homes by 2031, purchasing 300 new homes, working with private landlords to increase the availability of private sector lets and introducing a new ‘hotelier framework’, to allow the transition away from high-cost commercial hotels.

However, due to the ongoing shortage of alternative temporary accommodation the council’s housing service has been forced to extend the use of hotels beyond December 2023.

A report on temporary accommodation for homeless families detailed how this resulted in an additional budget overpend of £1.6m with just over £1m of this specifically attributed to hotel costs incurred between January and March.

To help reduce the pressure, Haringey’s housing demand and strategic procurement teams are working to create a hotelier framework to allow a range of providers to express an interest in working with the council, specifically suppliers who specialise in the provision of hotels to meet homelessness needs.

For example, such hotels may have additional security and cooking and cleaning facilities. The framework is expected to be completed by July.

To help support the initiatives and the overall temporary accommodation cost, in October 2023 the council approved an additional £2m of spending from the government’s Homelessness Prevention Grant.

In response to the difficulties Sarah Williams, cabinet member for housing services, private renters and planning, said: “These reports highlight once again the extreme challenges faced by Haringey and other boroughs responding to the worsening housing crisis in London.

“Welfare cuts, cost-of-living pressures and a rise in evictions from private sector accommodation means we are seeing record homelessness applications.

“Like every London borough, a combination of ‘Right to Buy’ and a shortage of social housing has left us with insufficient permanent accommodation of our own to offer. Coupled with a chronic shortage of family-sized accommodation as landlords flee the market because of high interest rates, means our options for temporary housing are severely limited.

“Despite 14 years of government funding cuts, we are doing what we can to pick up the pieces for thousands in need by investing £3m in temporary accommodation this year. We have an extensive plan in place to help us address rising demand and shrinking supply, so we rely less on hotel accommodation, as well as continuing with our commitment to deliver thousands of council homes.

“But fundamental change is needed, including more central government support for struggling families, strong protections for private renters at a national level to prevent evictions and the financial help we need to deliver the number of genuinely affordable homes our residents desperately want to see.”

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