Crisis: Homelessness is rising rapidly amid the cost-of-living crisis

“It is really unlike anything I’ve seen in recent years in terms of the numbers coming to us.”

HOMELESSNESS is rising rapidly amid the cost-of-living crisis a leading charity has warned. 

Matt Downie, CEO of Crisis, told GB News more women and older people were finding themselves sleeping on the street. 

Speaking to Alastair Stewart he said:  “Homelessness is definitely on the rise. We did have some good years through the pandemic, where we actually saw numbers go down. 

“But they’re going up again, this is the very sharp end of the cost-of-living crisis, as you can imagine, and a crisis hitting our services all year round. 

“Over the winter period, and particularly Christmas, we open various centres, including hotels, and some of them are still running. We’re running them until the end of January this year. And one of the reasons for that is there’s so many people needing help. 

“It is really unlike anything I’ve seen in recent years in terms of the numbers coming to us. 

Commenting on the types of people contacting the charity Mr Downie continued: “There is a rise in the number of women, there’s a rise in the number of young people and a rise in the number of older people, it’s everything. 

“What we’re seeing particularly are people who just cannot afford to pay their rent. The number of people who just come to us and say, actually I never thought homelessness would happen to me.

“They tell us their rent’s gone up or I simply can’t afford the 12 or 15% increase. We’re talking about people that, as I say, never thought they were anywhere near this ever happening to them. And that is happening to women and to various different groups.

Explaining how they help those in need he added: “The opposite of homelessness is a person reaching their potential is not simply having a roof over their head. So, what we do is make sure that people have a home, not just temporary accommodation, but that they also have the skills they need to really rebuild their lives, get jobs, and rebuild relationships.

“No-one needs to be defined by something awful that happened to them.”