Homelessness and numbers using B&Bs falls, claims government

Homelessness acceptances have reached their lowest level in 25 years and the number of young people in bed and breakfast accommodation has fallen, according to government figures out yesterday.

There were 15,960 new homelessness acceptances (cases that met councils’ definition of homelessness) from April to June this year, 18% down on the same period in 2006 and the lowest quarterly figure since the early 1980s.

The number of 16 and 17-year-olds in B&Bs has fallen from 1,000 to 700 since the end of September.

Last November, the government set a target of eliminating the use of B&Bs for the group by 2010 accept in an emergency.

Figures for the second quarter of this year also showed a fall in the number of households in temporary accommodation of 3% on the previous quarter and 10% on the same time last year, to 84,900.

The government has a target of halving the number of households in temporary accommodation by 2010, from the 2004 figure of just over 100,000.

Shelter chief executive Adam Sampson welcomed the figures but said the government still had “a long way to go” to clear the backlog of households in temporary accommodation.