No crib for a bed - the disgrace of 10,000 homeless children in Birmingham
'What have we done to deserve this' asks one worried teenager, stuck in temporary accommodation
Dear Friends, I hope this finds you well and looking ahead to a peaceful weekend. Thank you for taking time out to join me for the latest edition from Inside Birmingham with Jane Haynes (still me!).
It’s a big two days for local democracy with council results already in or imminent for Redditch, and soon after in Dudley, Cannock Chase, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Sandwell, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Worcester, Tamworth, Rugby and Solihull. Then tomorrow (Saturday) I’ll be at the counts at the ICC to bring you the outcome of the West Midlands mayor and police and crime commissioner elections. Look out for a special post-elections wrap up in your inbox this weekend.
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You might have recently caught me on Newsnight, Radio 4, a Centre for Cities podcast, Times Radio or Radio 5 dissecting the mayoral campaigns, and I’ll be on BBC breakfast news on Monday morning. (Incidentally I’ve never accepted telly invites before out of fear of looking/sounding daft, what with having a face for radio and all, but with age comes a ‘why the hell not’ attitude that I wish I’d had earlier in life!) It’s great to get the opportunity to share insights about the regional political situation with a national audience.
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But today’s newsletter is not about me, or the bubble of politics, but how the decisions made by politicians directly affects families at their most vulnerable, and specifically children and young people in our city.
Triggered by an encounter with an inspiring teenager who showed me around the dire temporary accommodation her family is stranded in, I wanted to share with you the findings of my recent probe into Birmingham’s hidden homelessness crisis and the kids affected. If it doesn’t anger you, and make you demand real solutions from our Government, I’m not sure what it will take.
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The miserable numbers of a city in a housing crisis
Behind every number is a person, and every person has a story. That’s data journalism 101. While the numbers provide the evidence, it’s the anecdotes and cases that really shine a light on the reality. That’s why I hope you read on to Nia’s story.
But first, the numbers. In five years covering the homeless crisis in the city, and the rising child poverty that sits alongside it, the impact on our youngest and most vulnerable of not having a home has never felt so profoundly disturbing. It is a horror that shames our country, our Government and our city.
Right now, in Birmingham, there are approximately 5,149 families living in temporary accommodation (the number changes daily). Some 1,467 households (mostly families with children) are living in a Bed and Breakfast hotel, an annexe to a hotel or similar, or a hostel.
Then another 2,370 households are what is called ‘dispersed’ - a criteria usually relating to self contained accommodation for domestic abuse victims, or accommodation for families seeking asylum while waiting on decisions by the Home Office; and families that are sent to live outside the area. Two households are with a private landlord; 1,310 have a tenancy with a private social landlord. That’s a grand total of 5,149 separate families without a permanent home.
So far, so what, you might ask. But a breakdown of the children within these households paints a more stark picture. In all there are 10,670 children, aged 0-17, currently existing in these different types of unstable, often unsuitable, temporary accommodation.
New born infants and one year olds account for a staggering 976 of all homeless children in the city. There are nearly 3,000 pre-schoolers all together who are homeless.
At the other end of the age range, 2,849 teens aged 13 to 17 are in temporary accommodation - including more than 540 in B&Bs and hostels, often for weeks at a time, with no privacy, and sharing rooms with parents and siblings. It’s not usually a place to invite friends round to - in my experience, there are often strict rules banning visitors anyway, and many of the teens are ashamed to share their living experiences with classmates.
These children and their parents are fighting for a social home with nearly 24,000 other households on the Housing Register in Birmingham. Said the council: "Nearly 7,000 families are seeking a 2-bedroom home, 6,500 are seeking a 3-bedroom home, and over 3,000 are seeking a 4-bedroom home.” Yet only 3% of available housing stock is 4-bedded.
At its recent mayoral accountability assembly, held last week, Birmingham Citizens UK highlighted just one case, of teenager Tahani, who has been in the homeless system for four years, part of a family of seven. “My younger siblings do not know a different life to growing up homeless.” She urged candidates Andy Street and Richard Parker to “commit to building more social rent family homes urgently.”
She is not the only one desperate for change.
Nia’s Story - “What have we done wrong?”
There’s a smell of dampness and decay from the black and white mould that’s taken over the ceiling of the downstairs bathroom. It’s a toxic version of the mould that scars most of the other rooms in the house, but this room is the worst of it. A few metres down the hall, a 53 year old man, huddled in a jumper under his duvet, smiling all the same, lies in his loaned hospital bed. He’s recovering from a rare, life threatening blood disorder that landed him in acute care for over 18 months.
Any infection could set back his recovery, yet here he is, in a house riddled with risk.
Minutes earlier his daughter Nia, now 19, had greeted me at the door of their home in Northfield with a beautiful smile and a warm hug. I try not to get her hopes up. “I can’t promise by telling your story anyone will listen or do anything,” I warn her. “But at least you are here, and listening,” she says. “That counts for a lot.”
Over the next hour Nia recounts her family’s story. Two years earlier they had been a happy gang of six: dad a security guard, mum a support worker, Nia and her three brothers all bright and achieving well in school, with high aspirations to become a pilot, a lawyer, a builder and a midwife between them.
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