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HOMELESS TO BE ‘BANISHED TO BARKING’
MP calls for hundreds of exiled families to be brought back
HUNDREDS of vulnerable families are being banished to Barking in the dash to meet housing targets.
The government has ordered a 50 per cent cut of more than 3,000 homeless families in temporary accommodation in Westminster by 2010.
The accommodation, a last resort for families made homeless in exceptional circumstances, is mostly rented from the private sector.
Housing chiefs in Westminster Council have already started moving them out to Essex to massage the figures, according to Karen Buck MP, who is calling for them to be brought back immediately.
The MP for Regent’s Park and Kensington North said: “Temporary accommodation is only offered to people in priority need. They are generally people without inherited wealth and from less well off backgrounds.
“Some of them have lived in these homes for seven years. Many have children in schools here and now have to pay up to £40 a week to travel to work. Against all odds they are back on their feet but now they are being pressured unacceptably.
³The government has set targets of reducing the temporary accommodation by 50 per cent. But, as the council¹s answer is to move them out of Westminster, we are now seeing this drive to hit targets is failing. The council must house them in Westminster.²
She added: ³The council is paying private landlords up to £450 a week for accommodation in east London. They can easily find that in Westminster.²
The MP said temporary accommodation is a hot topic for the Tory-run council, struggling with a black hole in its council housing stock. The illegal sell-off of homes in Shirley Porter¹s reign is to blame, according to Ms Buck, who said: ³The irony is that they are renting flats sold by the council under the Right-to-Buy scheme. We need to replace the thousands of affordable homes that have been lost over the last 20 years.²
Ms Buck said temporary accommodation was not available to thousands of migrants coming to Westminster from Bulgaria and Romania since the EU expanded in January 1.
But Philip Burke a Simon Community trustee said: ³Some are qualifying for temporary accommodation if they have children. Westminster is obliged to house children, regardless of where they come from.²
Councillor Gwyneth Hampson, deputy member for housing, said: “Westminster City Council can confirm that the number of people in temporary accommodation is falling as a result of the introduction of homelessness prevention measures, including making better use of private sector units for rehousing and earlier intervention in disputes that could lead to homelessness.
³We now have less than 3,000 households in temporary accommodation and we expect to achieve the government’s temporary accommodation reduction target of halving its use by 2010.² |
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