Around 130,000 families in England are being forced to live in one-bedroom flats because of a severe shortage of homes, according to a new report.
The research from the National Housing Federation reveals that more than one in ten children in England are living in overcrowded homes.
This comes to a total of around 1.3m children from more than 600,000 families, who are stuck in overcrowded conditions because there is nowhere else for them to live.
Clare, 66, lives in a one-bedroom flat in east London. Two years ago, her 30 year-old daughter Lavine was made homeless, along with her three children (aged 9, 5 and 2).
With nowhere to go Lavine was forced to move into Clare’s home and all of them have been living together ever since.
She said: “It’s been so hard on all of us. All my daughter and her kids could do was move in with me, and now they’re stuck here. There’s just nowhere else for them to go.”
Clare said being so overcrowded affects the whole family. Two of the children sleep in Clare’s bedroom – including one in her bed with her – while Lavine and her youngest child sleep on the sofa in the living room.
“No one has enough space, so it gets really stressful. Our health is worse, the children’s education is suffering – I’m really worried about it,” Clare said.
“My daughter and her family need somewhere affordable to move to. The government needs to step in and do something to help people like us.”
Overcrowding in England has now reached record levels, as around 96,000 more children are living in overcrowded homes compared to a decade ago, according to the 2017-18 English Housing Survey.
Homes are said to be ‘overcrowded’ if a child has to share their bedroom with two or more other children, sleep in the same room as their parents, or share with a teenager of the opposite sex.
The new report in to the shocking state of overcrowding also includes a poll, carried out by ComRes for the National Housing Federation, showing the terrible living conditions overcrowded families often experience.
Just under half of children in overcrowded homes are forced to share a bedroom with their parents and in more than a quarter of overcrowded homes, children even have to share a bed with a parent or sibling.
More than a quarter of adults in overcrowded homes are forced to sleep in kitchens, bathrooms or hallways because of the lack of space.
More than half of parents in overcrowded homes worry that their children aren’t coming home because of how overcrowded it is while around half of children in overcrowded homes struggle to do their homework because of the lack of space. This includes 14% who find it totally impossible.
Overcrowding is mainly caused by the stark shortage of housing in England, especially social housing, which means growing families have nowhere affordable to move to.
On Wednesday, an alarming new report revealed thousands of children whose families face homelessness are living in converted shipping containers, office blocks and B&Bs.
The study by Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield estimates there could be as many as 210,000 homeless children in England, with 124,000 in temporary housing and 90,000 part of “sofa surfing” families.
According to homeless charity Crisis, the country needs around 145,000 new social homes every year, including 90,000 for social rent.
Last year only 6,000 social-rented homes were built, following government cuts to funding for new social housing since 2010.
To combat this, the National Housing Federation is calling on the government to invest £12.8bn every year for the next decade in building new social homes, bringing spending levels back to those last seen under Churchill’s government in the early 1950s.
This would effectively end the housing crisis, kick starting a nationwide housebuilding boom of around 145,000 new social homes to rent and shared ownership properties to buy every year.
Kate Henderson, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, said the research shows yet “another devastating impact of the broken housing market”.
“All across the country, whole families squeeze into one-bedroom flats, children sleep three to a bed, and parents are forced to spend their night in the kitchen or a hallway,” she said.
“This is having a huge impact on more than a million children, seriously affecting their start in life. For decades, successive governments have failed to invest in social housing, and families are paying the price.
“The only way to fix the problem is by building enough social housing, which requires a radical public spending programme – there is simply no other way. By investing £12.8bn in affordable housing every year, the government can finally put an end to the country’s housing problem.”