In 2005 a record number of 127, 992 children woke up on?

Question

Christmas day in temporary housing & shelters in the UK. 83,962 in London alone. The goverment were petitioned to build an extra 20,000 social rented homes a year to help lift thousands of children out of homelessness and bad housing.

There are more than one million children who live in housing unfit for human habitation, which impacts on their health, education and future prospects, according to Shelter's own research.

Is it not shocking that, in the 21st century, there are thousands of children in Britain waking up homeless on Christmas Day and every other day of the year. We're not going forwards but backwards and this shouldn't be happening in the UK in the 21st Centuary

Here we are in 2007 and how many children are going to be in the same situation this Christmas?

Orly, nobody is blocked by me. I've only ever done it the once and they are unblocked now. That person also knows who they are as I emailed them to say sorry

Answer 1

If this is the plight of children in the UK, a super power, can you just imagine the plight of children in poor, developing countries???

No child anywhere on our good earth should suffer the misery of being homeless. Its a shame that in this era of high technology, we can't even treat our children right.

Answer 2

I don't think that it is statistically possible to identify this accurately, because I'm sure that some of these children would have been born on Christmas Day or Christmas Eve, and when they woke up, they would no longer be children. Also, do we count the children that become homeless on Christmas Day?

Let's look at the bigger picture: Why are there ANY homeless children on ANY given day in the U.K.?

Answer 3

Our housing system is going down the drain with thr rising prices - the government are pushing up the interest rates to curb spending and people getting into debt, but do not seem to understand that these interest rates are nothing to do with spending and causing people to lose their homes. People
are going to have the only option of renting or being homeless in tempory shelter.

Labour are opening their arms to people from other countries and giving their houses to these people, denying people to residencies in their own country. This causing the system to be strained, causing debt to the government. Although they do get money form the EU for this, it is not enough. My brother was taken off the housing list with a housing association to make way for these peopel. He caused a stink and went to the ombudsman declaring his human rights and has been put back on the list. That is bad to take people off as we have priorities too. The government are causing the problem to be worse. I put my brother in contact of Shelter and they were extremely good on their advice. Well done to them.

I have been homeless myself 9 years ago when my grandad died, leaving me with no shelter (I was living with him) and have moved around lot since.

I do see that Labour have brought back the grants system to enable people to study at uni, but are there the jobs going to be for them when they graduate? Nurses are being sacked, jobs going abroad....hmm...

Just read the answer with the luxury homes being mentioned. They are being built in silly places - ie Wildegreen Sutton Coldfield..next to the train station, less than 20 yards from the train track...Hurst St in Birmingham, a building company have built homes in a busy club area and are campaining for their closure. The clubs were there first...they chose the bad site...I say no more. In fact I will....These new homes are also being built where the sewer drainage cannot cope, a site near us has had problems with blockage and overload with human waste being regurgitated onto the street. Great to live in for 200 000 quid. Money well spent..not. Victorian drains for so many flats...

Answer 4

Well said. Too many expensive "luxury apartments" are being built, even in run down areas, and not enough is being done about the housing crisis which affects thousands of families. Children should never be homeless, especially not in one of the richest countries in the world.

Answer 5

You know, I didn't know it was that bad, but that really is horrible seeing how we're about to come upon year 2008. It's really sad that government's all over the world don't put forth a bigger effort towards this global problem. Kids let alone anyone, should never have to go through this. And if you really are that heart felt about it maybe you can start a blog about and if you get enough people interested you can start up a program to benefit this problem.

Answer 6

Yeah it's terrible and the government should be doing something about it but they are too busy going from one scandal to another to worry about it ,The children's Charity's should star shouting a bit louder or bung the gov a back hander to get things going ,Thank goodness i can provide a decent home life for my kids.

Answer 7

It is terrible and happens all over Europe , not only Britain.
In Spain , children are living in tents.There is no social rented homes only private. If you think things are bad in that department there, you should check here.

Answer 8

Not usually into being serious on here....but that is a disgraceful figure, where does all the money go from the likes of children in need and the lottery..? shouldn't this be used for just this sort of thing...?

Answer 9

You present stark reality. I hope that governments will one day understand that it is those children that are the future. It is those children and others in other countries that will determine the course will take in the years to come. Nice points.

Answer 10

And yet we pump 100's of millions of pounds in aid to Africa. When it would take a fraction of that to house all the homeless right here in our own country.