There are 151,630 homeless children in England living in Temporary Accommodation (data from March 2024).
Many are living in dangerous conditions with little support to help them navigate through our complex systems. Families are continuously placed out of area, far away from their school, GP and community. The educational attainment of homeless children plummets when they become homeless. The barriers to healthcare increases and children’s health and development suffer. There is a national focus and political will for rough sleeping, but less so for families. And tragically, 55 children have died in Temporary Accommodation, most were under 1.
And yet, we dare to hope.
After hosting a successful Manchester conference earlier this year, we now held our Homeless Families: Dare to Hope Conference in London as well, in partnership with Amnesty International UK, to continue encouraging, supporting and inspiring people working with homeless families in any capacity.
We want to bring together our experts by experience alongside colleagues from housing, health, education, the home office and the voluntary and faith sector. Whether you are front line, a volunteer, a commissioner or a politician, the crisis of homeless families is all our responsibility to share.
Things can and will get better.
We look forward to hosting more gatherings to look at and work to improve the health and education outcomes for children and families in the homelessness journey.
For more information about Shared Health please email contact@contactsharedhealth.org.uk
