Thank you to everyone who attended our fringe event at the Labour Party’s Autumn Conference on Monday, 29th September, and special thanks to our guest speakers Dame Rachel De Souza, Dame Siobhain McDonagh MP, Councillor Bev Craig and Councillor Louise Brett.
Drawing on personal experience and working directly with children currently on their homeless journey, our passionate and knowledgeable panel discussed both short-term and long-term solutions Labour could undertake to address the housing crisis.
“Really treating housing as a priority, as a health priority, as an education priority, is absolutely key. You can’t learn, you can’t get your exams if you’re in a mouldy, rat-infested, non-permanent education”. – Dame Rachel de Souza.
“Absolutely, we should be fighting tooth and nail to make sure that people have that safety. It is the start and the beginning of everything. It does affect [Children’s] entire life chances”. – Councillor Louise Brett
“How the state wraps around a person, and the work that we’ve been doing… around the role that notifying GPs and making sure that schools see their young people as their responsibility in all areas of their life, I think is really important”. – Councillor Bev Craig.
The implications of Temporary Accommodation on children’s lives are far-reaching, with negative impacts on health and education, including an increased risk of child mortality. Our report, “Children Living in Temporary Accommodation: An Absolute Scandal”, exposes that living in Temporary Accommodation can violate thirteen articles of the United Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
