MORE than 2,000 households across Mid Cheshire were tipped into homelessness during the first 18 months of the coronavirus pandemic, figures reveal.
Housing charity Shelter said thousands of families across the country have become homeless during the Covid-19 crisis, and with living costs rising, more are at risk now.
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities figures show that 819 households in Cheshire East sought council support after becoming homeless between April 2020 and the end of September 2021.
Of those, 73 were households with children.
Meanwhile, 1,662 households in Cheshire West and Chester sought council support after becoming homeless in the same time period.
Of those, 239 were households with children.
Shelter said if someone has become repeatedly homeless over the 18 months, they would appear in the figures multiple times – though the charity estimates this to be a very small number of cases.
Osama Bhutta, director of campaigns at Shelter, said the pandemic has been ‘atrocious’ for struggling families, even with protections like the eviction ban and the £20 Universal Credit uplift.
She added: “Now, living costs are spiralling and all the protections are gone, even more people will be at risk of losing their homes.
“The economic impact of the pandemic has exposed the true cost of decades of failure to build the social homes we need, leaving millions in insecure homes they can barely afford."
Bailiff-enforced evictions were banned for a large part of the pandemic – a measure introduced by the Government to prevent renters from being made homeless – though the ban was lifted in England on May 31.
Containing the first three full months’ worth of data after the eviction ban was lifted, the latest statistics show 36,510 English households became homeless between July and September 2021 – the equivalent of 397 every day.
In Cheshire East, 132 households needed help because they were homeless over this time – down from 160 during the same period in 2020.
In Cheshire West and Chester, 242 households needed help – down from 290.
A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesperson said its actions had helped keep thousands of people in their homes.
A spokeswoman added: “Government interventions have also prevented almost 450,000 households from becoming homeless since 2017, supported by an extra £316 million this year, and we will also be ending no-fault evictions as soon as we can.”
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