New homelessness campaign launched by Brent Council

On Friday, 23 August, Brent Council launched the "Find a Place You Can Afford" campaign to highlight the severe homelessness crisis in Brent and encourage families to work with the council to improve their housing situation.

Despite building more homes than almost any other London borough in the last decade, Brent faces a homelessness emergency. The number of homeless applications has risen by 23% in three years, with around 140 households becoming homeless every week. Half of these families are stuck in expensive, basic temporary housing.

Brent had made progress in reducing homelessness, cutting the number of households in temporary accommodation by more than half from 2012 to December 2021. However, since then, the situation has worsened due to rising rents, a backlog of evictions after the pandemic, and a lack of affordable housing.

This issue isn't unique to Brent; 57% of England's homeless households in temporary accommodation are in London. Currently, 175,000 Londoners, including one in 23 children, are homeless and living in temporary housing.

In Brent, over 34,000 people are on the social housing waiting list, but with only 650 homes available each year, most homeless families will never get a council home. Their best option is often to find a private rental, possibly outside London due to high rents.

Rather than staying in temporary housing, they encourage homeless families to take charge of their situation and work with them to find affordable homes. They can provide financial help to secure a safe, long-term rental.

Brent Council have launched a video, booklet, and webpage with more details about the "Find a Place" campaign. Visit www.brent.gov.uk/findaplace for more information.