74 children died whilst homeless since 2019 and we are outraged
To say our hearts are broken is not enough.
Children are dying, with temporary accommodation being cited as a likely factor, at the rate of almost one per month.
Most of these children are babies.
Many are not white children.
Most are from deprived backgrounds.
We are outraged. We know that these deaths are preventable. We feel so much for all the families trapped in this situation. Our deepest condolences to the families who have lost children due to health implications from shoddy, dangerous flats or from living in a hotel room with no cooking facilities for years on end.
The policies that could save the lives of all these babies are right there, but are rarely talked about by the major charities or by politicians. Put simply, they are not seen as an option.
We witness legislators and regulators twiddling their thumbs or nibbling round the edges of the problem and all the while it gets worse. We witness housing providers who are complacent and negligent in their duties. Severe maladministration seems to have become the norm. Awaab’s Law, brought in after the horrific death of Awaab Ishak is proving difficult to implement. What chance does it have, when the housing ombudsman recently noted
“There is a degree of complacency in the sector when responding to hazards, which is alarming given the statutory framework has been in place for 20 years.”
What kind of society are we when we will sit by whilst babies die preventable deaths rather than challenge a status quo?
We have a five point plan that would solve the problem over a 15-20 year period.
Immediately begin use of EDMOs (Empty Dwelling Management Orders, a piece of legislation within the Localism Act 2010) to populate long term empties as a better solution to high quality temporary accommodation.
Prioritise and create the conditions for mass council house building. For a start, give the £3 billion earmarked for developer subsidies to councils to kickstart the kind of mass council house building programme we have not seen since the 1950s and 60s.
Whilst doing so, stop the depletion of existing stock. Scrap Right to Buy completely and invest in Right to Buy Back.
Reverse austerity policies, including local housing allowance freeze.
Scrap the hostile environment.
The last two although not housing policies, are key drivers of homelessness. If we are to really talk about prevention, which is currently on trend in policy making circles, these legislative causes dating to the 2010s cannot be ignored. Otherwise the sheer volume of people becoming homeless and needing assistance will continue to bankrupt local authorities and no meaningful work can be done to sort out the housing crisis.
The solutions are there. They would require investment, but homelessness is expensive, so they would balance in terms of costs to local authorities and the NHS in no time at all.
We cannot go on like this, with babies dying preventable deaths.
We need the government to take proper action. But changing this will take an entire societal shift as well in what we value and how we share and take care of each other.
A case in point; there are enough long term empties to house almost every person and family caught up in this crisis, but we have a culture which would rather them lay empty than be used by councils through EDMOs to house people and provide rent to the owners. So even when sensible legislation is put in, ‘we’ find ways to make it impossible to implement. The EDMOs have been tied up in so much red tape and tribunals that they rarely go through.
This is cultural and requires a cultural shift, which takes all of us.
If you want to help you can write to your MP and ask them what they are doing about the housing crisis and the child deaths, or share this article so people can be better informed about the solutions.
It is hard to find hope in the context of preventable child deaths and in the face of such complacency, negligence and greed.
We want to believe that change is possible, but we need some serious reality confrontation in policy and politics.