The number of people living in temporary accommodation in England has hit a 25-year high.
Some 104,510 households were without permanent homes by the end of March – a rise of 10 percent on the previous year. That included 131,370 children.
Of the households in temporary accommodation in the first quarter of the year, 13,780 were living in bed and breakfasts, up 37.4 percent from the same time last year.
The number who were rough sleeping when they approached their local authority for help was up by 18.2 percent from the first quarter last year, to 3,770.
The figures, released by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, come a day after Housing Secretary Michael Gove expressed his commitment to Tory manifesto pledges to build 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s.
Polly Neate, chief executive at Shelter, said: “With record numbers of people becoming homeless, the time for empty words on building social homes and overdue promises on ending no fault evictions has long past.”
She said “genuinely affordable homes” are needed and urged the Government to “get on and build” social homes.
A government spokesman insisted it is “determined to prevent homelessness before it occurs”.