A Better Vision for Temporary Accommodation: Feed into our National Strategy

Most people will have noticed the crisis of homelessness in the UK, particularly with the ever-growing numbers of people sleeping on the streets. This dire situation is becoming obvious in towns and cities across the country. What is less obvious is the amount of people living in hidden homelessness, often in appalling conditions in temporary accommodation.

At Justlife we focus on advocating for the over 100,000 households currently living in temporary accommodation (TA), whether that be locally through our direct services or nationally through our research and policy work.

Our call to evidence, published last year as part of our work with the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Households in Temporary Accommodation (APPGTA), painted a bleak picture of a growing population trapped in substandard TA, sometimes for years. Issues of mould, health & safety risks, overcrowding and much more, were found to be far too common problems faced by people living in TA. In some instances, conditions are so bad there is a risk to life.

We want to help address this bleak picture, building on our policy work to affect change at the highest level. Importantly, we want to do this alongside those with lived experience of TA. That’s why we’re now beginning the path to a Better Vision for Temporary Accommodation.

Today we’re announcing a sector-wide consultation with the various individuals, institutions and organisations who are working in, or have experience of, homelessness. This includes those with lived experience, fellow charities, housing associations, frontline staff, local authorities, and anyone else in the sector who is willing to feed into this Vision.

We’ll be holding these conversations over the coming weeks and months, while reviewing our findings with a core group of people with lived experience. We want our policy work to be informed by the voices of those who have experienced the reality we’re trying to change. The lived experience of people working in the sector more broadly is equally important, which is why we’re seeking to get the views of stakeholders from across the sector.

We will host an event for the Households in Temporary Accommodation APPG, which we are co-secretariats for alongside the Shared Health Foundation. This will be our first chance to relay to people in power how this collective vision is developing, and we feel it’s essential it’s codesigned with our core group, as well as some of our other lived experience advocates that work in our peer research projects.

All this will feed into a co-created report, with a clear set of recommendations: Our Better Vision for Temporary Accommodation. We plan to take this vision to the party conferences in September, with the aim of influencing policy in the run up to the next general election, and beyond.

Our plans are ambitious, but we are not alone in recognising the need for comprehensive changes to the housing system generally, and the temporary accommodation system specifically. There is a committed sector of organisations and individuals dedicated to making this change, and we hope to lean on their expertise and passion to create a Better Vision for Temporary Accommodation.

If you interested in taking part, please email morgan@justlife.org.uk