The first official All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Households in Temporary Accommodation

On Monday 25th April the first official All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Households in Temporary Accommodation (TA) was held at Portcullis House Westminster, with over 100 attendees in person and online, and a call for evidence launched which you can find out more about here. This cross-party movement aims to improve the health, lives and experiences of families and single adults living in temporary accommodation across England, and will present solutions to the national Hidden Homelessness situation. The group is chaired by MP for Mitcham and Morden Siobhain McDonagh, and Justlife and Shared Health Foundation are the co-secretariat for the group.

In this first meeting we were joined by some expert guest speakers to help explain the realities of life in TA, in order to demonstrate why this issue must be considered a priority in the work towards ending homelessness, followed by Eddie Hughes, minister Housing and Rough Sleeping who shared a speech and then participated in a Q&A from the room.

First of all, we heard from Alex Firth from Human Rights Watch, whose report co-authored with Childhood Trust can be found here. Alex talked about the conditions he encountered during the research project: stories of pest infestations, young teenagers living in single bedroom temporary accommodation with their parents - suffering from breathing difficulties, chest infections, and missing school due to their situation. The research calls for a need for a framework of standards to design adequate housing that is enforced - something that the APPG is keen to consider and support.

Next was Fiona McLeod who is involved in the Justlife TAAG network, and a former resident of TA. She told us about her first hand experiences living in TA for 5 years with her teenage son - and the difficulties her son faced while living here and doing his GCSEs with no WiFi, unable to invite his friends over; and the impact that has continued to have.

Angie Ouattara from Shared Health talked about her insights working as a midwife for people living in TA. From her experience, the barriers they face can be anything from complications as a result of the traumatic experiences that led them into TA; through to such basic things such as not having access to the internet or being able to navigate the health system or appointment systems. She also talked about how women fleeing domestic violence might no longer have their photo ID, or bank accounts, and how much harder it is to get those things set up again when living in TA. Improving access to services, registering people with the GP, supporting people to attend appointments that often get missed are all solutions that she said can help - but that can only be implemented when the issue is acknowledged.

After the guest speakers we were joined by Minister for Housing and Rough Sleeping Eddie Hughes and members of his team, who shared a speech from his department’s perspective and then answered in-depth Q&A from our attendees. The minister spoke about how hidden homelessness has been underrepresented in planning and policies - and acknowledged that this APPG could give this issue the spotlight it deserves, and that the call for evidence could play a huge role in increasing the minister's understanding of the issues and potential solutions.

At this meeting, the intention was to launch the APPG by putting the stories and voices of those with lived experience at the centre of the group’s work as we propose real solutions, while setting out our intention to look for the bright spots within the system and reasons to be hopeful.

To help us start turning this intention into action, we have launched a call for evidence about current standards of TA across England. You can participate here.

We’re interested in hearing from anyone who feels they have information to share in the form of stories, photographs and experiences of life in TA. We also invite submissions of research and investigations around this theme.

The purpose of this call for evidence is to support our investigations into the viability of and need for a national system through which TA standards are monitored, regulated and enforced. It is also to help increase the APPG’s understanding of what the issues are that people living in TA face on a day to day basis right now in England, and form part of a national strategy to improve the health and wellbeing of all that live in TA.

Anyone who feels they have useful information to share can submit evidence. We are particularly keen to hear from you if you are:

• A current or recent resident of Temporary Accommodation (whether you are a single person, family with children, pregnant, and whatever your resident status is)
• An agency advocating or working on behalf of residents of Temporary Accommodation
• A research body or researcher who has carried out research into the issues around Temporary Accommodation
• Any health care professional or local authority officer working with residents of Temporary Accommodation

Please do help us spread the word about the call for evidence or submit evidence yourself if you have experience of TA - either as a resident, advocate or health worker of any kind. The call for evidence is anonymous, and we'd like to get as wide a snapshot as possible to bring to the next meeting, so we can focus on moving the conversation forward into action and solutions.

You can follow the work of the APPG on its official Twitter or website.

If you are interested in attending a meeting or being kept in touch about the group, please contact us directly at info@householdsintemporaryaccommodation.co.uk.

Please consider writing to your MP to let them know that the issue of TA is one that you want them to be aware of, introduce the APPG and invite them to get in touch with us to attend the next meeting.

Finally, you can access the call for evidence here.

We’re incredibly grateful to all our speakers who attended and shared their expertise and insights, and to minister Eddie Hughes and his team for joining us and speaking about the work his department is doing, and participating in an in depth Q&A with our attendees.

We’d also like to extend a special thank you to all the MPs, members of the APPG and beyond, who attended: Rebecca Long-Bailey (secretary of the group), Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Karen Buck, Peter Bottomly, Apsana Begum (online)