Furniture retailer IKEA and Shelter has delivered a room-sized open letter, signed by over 12,000 people, calling on the Child Poverty Taskforce to recommend the Government builds more social housing.
The letter measures 3.5m x 2.5m – the actual size of a room provided for one family of seven helped by Shelter – to show the desperate lack of space many homeless families are faced with in temporary accommodation.
With a record 151,6302 children in England – equivalent to 1 in 78 children – currently homeless and living in temporary accommodation, IKEA and Shelter are calling on the government to tackle the issue by committing to building 90,000 genuinely affordable social homes a year for 10 years.
The delivery of the open letter to the Department for Education and the Department for Work and Pensions is the culmination of IKEA and Shelter’s Unwelcome Home campaign, which saw IKEA’s FLISAT Doll’s House reimagined to reflect the shocking conditions in temporary accommodation for thousands of children who are homeless in England – including mouldy walls, rats, dangerous wiring, cramped spaces and mattresses on the floor.
A dire shortage of social homes, rising evictions and sky-high private rents are forcing more families across the country into homelessness. Temporary accommodation can take the form of emergency hostels, B&Bs, one room bedsits and cramped flats.
“Every day in our frontline services we hear from families about the grim reality they are facing in temporary accommodation, from children being forced to share beds with their siblings, to dangerous and damp conditions,” said Mairi MacRae, Director of Campaigns at Shelter. “We desperately need serious government investment to build genuinely affordable social homes, to help families into a safe and secure home and end homelessness.”
“Every family deserves a safe place to call home,” said Hiliary Jenkins, Partnerships Lead at IKEA UK and Ireland. “Children stuck in temporary accommodation face shocking conditions, and often grow up in a place which lacks fundamental security, familiarity and community. Together with Shelter, we are urgently calling on the Government to build a new generation of social rent homes for families, to help tackle the housing emergency.”
