More than 1,000 people in West Northamptonshire without a home this Christmas

More than 1,000 people in West Northamptonshire will be homeless this Christmas, new estimates suggest.

Housing charity Shelter's research shows the number of homeless people across England rose by 14 percent in the last year.

It said the "housing emergency is out of control", and called on the Government to take the issue seriously.

The figures show 1,327 people are estimated to be homeless in West Northamptonshire this year.

Of these, 1,290 live in temporary accommodation – organised by social services, the council or themselves – including 599 children.

Meanwhile, 37 of the total homeless population are sleeping rough.

Nationally, around 309,000 people will be without a home this Christmas.

Homeless figures are snapshots or estimates of the problem, and they often undercount the true number.

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: "Homelessness is on nobody’s Christmas list, but 309,000 people will spend this time of year in a tiny hostel room or freezing in a doorway."

Ms Neate blamed the housing emergency on "chronic underinvestment" in social homes, with people unable to afford rising rents.

"It is appalling that the Government has allowed thousands of families to be packed into damp and dirty B&Bs and hostel rooms, which are traumatising children and making people desperately ill," she added.

"Until the Government takes this emergency seriously, our frontline services will do everything they can to help people keep or find a safe home this winter.

"It is only with the public’s support we can continue to provide vital advice and support and fight for the solutions people want and need to end homelessness."

In England, one in 182 people are homeless.

This is compared to one in 321 in West Northamptonshire.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said it is spending £2 billion on tackling homelessness and rough sleeping.

A DLUHC spokesperson said temporary accommodation is "an important way of making sure no family is without a roof over their head", but councils must ensure it is temporary and suitable for families' needs.

Funding to address homelessness includes £1 billion given to councils to financially support people moving out of temporary accommodation.

A West Northamptonshire Council spokeswoman said: "The council continues to work with partners to provide emergency accommodation for all those who are homeless and sleeping rough over the Christmas period and beyond. This includes wrap around support with the aim of moving people into permanent homes. While the homeless figure is lower locally than nationally, we will continue working hard to prevent homelessness early on and work with a range of partner organisations to provide access to specialist support for those who need it.

“The council has an extensive transformation programme focused on our homelessness service to increase early intervention and prevention work. WNC is currently supporting 672 households as they’re placed in temporary accommodation. In 2022/23 WNC had almost 5,000 approaches from households who were potentially going to become homeless or had become homeless – this was a 14 percent increase on the previous year. The service continues to support households, and has achieved 369 successful outcomes to prevent homelessness and 406 successful outcomes to relieve homelessness. Remaining households will have received housing advice.

“To further enhance this work, the council is currently remodelling the homelessness service and proposing to invest in staff resources in this service area to help manage increasing demand.”