Threshold sees 12% rise in number of households at risk of homelessness

More than 12,000 households at risk of homelessness were supported by the Threshold housing charity last year, according to its annual report.

On Wednesday, Threshold will publish its 2022 annual report, which highlights that tenancy terminations remains the biggest issue for tenants.

In 2022, Threshold worked with 12,031 cases where the household was at risk of homelessness, representing a 12 per cent increase on the number in 2021. Of the almost 6,000 at-risk cases closed in 2022, just under 4,500 – consisting of nearly 10,000 people – were prevented from entering homeless services.

Contacts made to Threshold in 2022 included more than 47,000 phone calls, over 9,400 webchat queries, circa 6,800 emails, and almost 200 video consultations.

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Tenancy terminations remains the largest issue facing private tenants for the sixth consecutive year, with nearly 39 per cent of queries concerning termination of tenancy. Many of these tenancy terminations were in relation to a landlord selling a property.

John-Mark McCafferty, chief executive of Threshold, raised concerns about the availability of homes to rent.

“In 2022 Threshold prevented 5,883 adults and 3,905 children from the risk of homelessness. Unfortunately, 455 households that we worked with entered homeless services and 259 were forced to stay with family and friends [couch surf] when their tenancy could not be protected, and they could not secure alternative housing,” he said.

“The significant decline in the availability of homes to rent and the lack of alternative housing options for people has made the work of stopping homelessness increasingly difficult.”

Liam Reid, chairman of the charity, said despite the housing crisis being widely acknowledged “we have yet to see major inroads in terms of its resolution”.

“The number of people contacting our advisers for assistance continues to grow and we have expanded our resources to cater for this, along with our work in driving legislative change,” he said.

“Threshold is committed to investing further in our services by hiring additional people, growing our income, and evolving our structures. These measures are aimed at ensuring we can keep more renters in their homes, advise more people, and increase our advocacy on behalf of people in the private rental sector.”