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The lack of affordable homes, coupled with more frequent relationship breakdowns, has led to a surge in the number of homeless families. Sarah Wellard looks at what is being done to remedy the situation.

There are about 80,000 families in England living in temporary accommodation arranged by local authorities under homelessness legislation, of whom 6,700 are living in bed and breakfast accommodation and a similar number in hostels. These figures exclude families in temporary accommodation not covered by homelessness legislation, such as asylum seeker families and families placed by social services.

Around a third of people are accepted as homeless when parents, relatives or friends are no longer willing or able to accommodate them and a further quarter following relationship breakdown. Some 15 per cent of families become homeless after living in private rented accommodation, and 2 per cent after mortgage arrears.

In 2001, 53,000 homes were sold under right-to-buy but only 18,000 affordable homes were built. In London, 11,000 council homes were sold. Only 3,000 were built.

Not only key workers in London and the South East are struggling to find somewhere to live. One of the less publicised aspects of the overheated housing market and the shortage of affordable housing is the rise in the number of families without a permanent home. Last year there were 78,620 families living in temporary accommodation, an all-time high. Many more are not included in the official statistics because they have placed themselves in temporary accommodation, are asylum seekers or are judged to be intentionally homeless.

Stephanie Mullen, project worker at the NCH Open Door Family Support Project in Salford, sees at first hand the severe strain which living in temporary accommodation places on family relationships. She says: "There’s a stigma about being in a hostel and families don’t want people to know. Parents and children become isolated from friends, family and the neighbourhood. Usually the children are out of school and they are with their parents all the time. They are all living in the same room and fuses get short. Parents can’t even send the children to their room and they end up shouting at them."

Families may feel unsafe because hostels and bed and breakfast accommodation are often shared with people who have drug or alcohol problems. Mullen says: "Families would rather hang around Tesco’s all day or walk the streets than be in the hostel. They try to stay out all day and only use it as a place to sleep at night."

Policy changes to be implemented over the next 12 months are aimed at easing the difficulties faced by homeless families. Under the Homelessness Act 2002 families assessed to be unintentionally homeless will have priority in social housing allocations, reversing changes made by the Conservative government. Barbara Roche, minister for social exclusion, has also announced an extra £250m to support families in temporary accommodation and pledged that by 2004 councils will no longer be allowed to use bed and breakfast accommodation to house homeless families - generally regarded as the worst form of temporary accommodation. The only exception will be in emergencies and then for a maximum of six weeks.

John Reacroft, secretary of the London Homeless Children and Families Projects Network, welcomes the move but says that fewer than half of families in B&Bs will be covered. "It only includes families classed as in priority need," he says. "Some of the worst B&Bs are full of asylum seekers. No asylum seeker family or family placed by social services will be re-housed."

Reacroft also points out that the pledge does not cover accommodation which is local authority-owned. He points out that B&Bs are defined as non-self-contained private sector accommodation. Those owned by councils are not counted as B&Bs. Some London councils own large buildings where families are placed in similar conditions to B&Bs, with one family to a room.

As well as chairing the London network, Reacroft is manager of Barnardo’s Families in Temporary Accommodation project which provides support to families in four London boroughs. The project offers welfare rights advice and family activities.

The rationale behind the work is to support parents, enabling them to create a better childhood experience for their children. By doing this, says Reacroft, "we help alleviate the social exclusion and people feel better about themselves". He cites the example of a woman with an eight-year-old daughter who came to the project after her flat, which she had owned, was burned down. "She was very depressed. She didn’t feel safe in the hostel. She didn’t want her daughter to use the bath because of who else was sharing it. We gave her practical help and she felt she could cope a lot better." Her daughter also began to flourish.

The Barnardo’s project has been running for 10 years and is entirely voluntarily funded. However, service planners are increasingly looking to the Children’s Fund to finance work targeted at homeless families. In Newcastle for example, the voluntary organisation Children North East runs a project for families who have been temporarily housed on a rundown estate. Shirley Chambers, Children’s Fund programme manager for the city, explains that the idea for the service came out of consultation with the local community and agencies working in the area. The project runs an after-school club for children and provides outreach support for parents, including helping them settle if they are offered permanent accommodation.

Chambers says: "People who have been homeless find it hard to get back into settled accommodation. Families may be sent anywhere in the city where they don’t know anyone. Providing a befriending service after they move on means they can settle and get on with their lives."

Reacroft sees little evidence of the so-called "revolving door" of homelessness. "We see very few families who have brought it on themselves. The people we work with are homeless for all sorts of reasons. The real issue is that there just aren’t enough homes families can afford."

How homelessness affects children

Research published by the charity Shelter highlights the impact of homelessness on all aspects of children’s lives. Their physical and emotional health may suffer through living in damp, cold, dirty and overcrowded conditions with shared and inadequate cooking facilities and bathrooms. Being homeless also has a major impact on children’s education. Families reported children being out of school, having to change school or making long journeys. Children often fall behind with their work and have difficulties finding somewhere to do their homework. Many lose friendships and are bullied by other children.

One mother said: "If any of the children woke up while I was gone they’d be on tenterhooks the whole time, waiting for me to come back. They were insecure about whether I would come back. I suppose with a change as big as losing your home, you could lose one of your parents as well."

According to a father of a four-year-old boy "He did things like refusing to go to school, sometimes crying all the way to school, not wanting to go back to the hostel... It stopped a few days after we left."

Source: Shelter, Where’s Home? Children and Homelessness in Bristol, Shelter, 2002.