3,800 children homeless in city

A SHOCKING 3,755 Birmingham children are officially classed as homeless and living in temporary accommodation.

Across the UK, 123,630 children are in this position.

The scale of the homelessness problem in Birmingham is shown in new official figures published by the Government.

There are 1,955 households in Birmingham stuck in temporary accommodation because they are homeless. And 1,525 of these have children.

There are 372 households with children living in bed and breakfast accommodation within the city.

This usually means that Birmingham City Council, which has a duty to help homeless people as best it can, could find nowhere else to place them.

And although the situation is meant to be temporary, 160 of those households have been in B&B accommodation for more than six weeks.

Investigations by the Birmingham Post have highlighted the difficulties faced by families forced to live in B&Bs or cheap hotels. It can mean adults and children are forced to share rooms and families have no cooking facilities. Other cases included:

A family of six – two adults and four children – currently stranded in a Hagley Road B&B, sharing two beds between them.

An older brother and sister who shared a hotel room while the brother was terminally ill with cancer. He died still waiting for a permanent home. His grieving sister has now been given a place in supported accommodation, after being supported by MP Preet Gill.

A mother with Aspberger’s Syndrome who fled domestic abuse with her young child only to end up in a noisy B&B alongside men with drug and alcohol addictions.

Housing and Homelessness Minister Heather Wheeler said the Homeless Reduction Act is making a real difference but “we know we need to do more”.

“That is why we are investing £1.2 billion to tackle all forms of homelessness, we are putting £9 billion into our affordable housing programme and we are also empowering councils to borrow to build more council homes.”