According to a British rural charity, the number of homeless people in rural England has increased by 40% in the past five years, with many of them sleeping outside in tents or improvised shelters.
With rising costs for food, electricity, rent, and mortgages, many Britons are finding it difficult to make ends meet in the G7 country and the sixth-largest economy in the world due to a cost of living problem.
The rate of annual inflation reached a 41-year high of 11.1 percent in October 2022. Although it has since dropped to 3.9 percent in November, charities claim that a number of reasons, including the elimination of welfare benefits over the past ten years and a lack of available housing, have made food poverty and homelessness worse.
With salaries stagnating and housing costs rising in many locations, the CPRE charity, which advocates for affordable housing in rural England, said that homelessness in the countryside had climbed from 17,212 in 2018 to 24,143 in 2023.
“The sharp rise in rural homelessness shows the real-life impact of record house prices, huge waiting lists for social-rent housing and the boom in second homes and short-term lets,” it said.
The organization reported that the number of rough sleepers in 12 primarily rural local authorities in England was greater than the 15 persons per 100,000 population national average.
‘Hidden out of sight’
The organization stated that the worst-affected rural local authority for rough sleeping in England was the town of Boston, which is northeast of London.
According to the most recent month for which data is available, September 2023, there were 48 persons per 100,000 living in the town who were homeless.
North Devon in southwest England had 29 while Bedford, located north of London, had 38 per 100,000.
“Unlike those in urban areas, people sleeping rough in the countryside are often hidden out of sight, camping in fields or sheltering in farm buildings,” the charity said.
“They are also less likely to have access to support services. This means the analysis, which uses the government’s own data, almost certainly underestimates the scale of the crisis.”
According to the charity, 300,000 individuals in rural England, where the average house sells for almost £420,000 ($535,000), are waiting for social housing.
Food handouts soar
In the meantime, the nonprofit organization Shelter reported that there will probably be 14% more homeless people in England this Christmas than there was last year.
According to the prediction, there would be 309,550 homeless individuals on any given night in 2023, the bulk of them will be living in temporary housing.
This represents an increase over its 2022 annual report forecast of 271,421.
The nonprofit attributed the situation to a housing emergency but cautioned that there may be more “hidden homelessness” in the form of couch surfing.
The largest food bank network in the UK, the Trussell Trust, reported last month that as poverty increased throughout the nation, the amount of food parcels given to those in need had reached “unprecedented levels.”
It said that, between April and September 2023, it had given out 1.5 million emergency food boxes to individuals, a 16 percent increase over 2022 and the most number it had ever given out at this time of year.
“This is the highest number of food parcel handouts we have had to give in six months,” it said.
“We are expecting this to be our worst winter ever.”