In the last month, Shelter has seen a sharp rise in people seeking support, who are worried about losing their jobs, their homes, and keeping their family safe during this pandemic.
Since lockdown, Shelter has, where possible, moved its face-to-face support to online and local telephone advice so that anyone facing urgent housing issues such as eviction, rent arrears or homelessness can still access free and expert help. Over half (55%) of the calls Shelter have answered since the outbreak started were directly related to the impact of coronavirus. At a time when we are all being told to stay in our homes, shockingly, 37% of callers Shelter helped were currently homeless, and 33% were at risk of homelessness.
Despite this difficult situation, Shelter’s frontline teams are working harder than ever to ensure those in need of support can access it. As well as increasing capacity though its online and telephone advice, Shelter has continued to provide support through its 12 hubs in local communities across England.
Shelter also offers an ‘Employee Housing Health Check’ to help businesses understand how the housing emergency is affecting their workforce. Shelter’s Housing Health Check can help employers to understand their employees’ housing struggles before they reach crisis point, making the workplace a safe place to talk about housing issues and a place where employees can get the advice and support they need to prevent homelessness.
Shelter successfully campaigned for the government to ban evictions during COVID-19, but there are still many facing homelessness. This includes families living in cramped emergency or temporary accommodation, those escaping domestic abuse, and millions of renters worried what will happen when the evictions ban is lifted. Shelter’s latest research shows that 1.7 million renters expect to lose their jobs over the next three months, and since lockdown began, over 1.4 million more people have already had to apply for Universal Credit.
As the crisis continues to unfold, now, more than ever, people need a safe and secure place to call home. To prevent further homelessness as a result of the pandemic, we need the government to do more to lift Universal Credit so it covers average rents, and to ensure everyone has a safe home to stay in and no one is evicted because of coronavirus. Find out more about Shelter’s campaigning here. In the meantime, you can help Shelter ensure those in need are able to receive support.
Share Shelter’s COVID-19 advice
- Download and distribute Shelter’s COVID-19 advice poster (see Download links below) to ensure Shelter’s support reaches as many people as possible during these unprecedented times.
- Signpost to Shelter’s support and information on the impact of COVID-19 on housing issues and rights via its dedicated, regularly updated advice pages: https://shelter.org.uk/coronavirus
- If you have any questions or would like to find out more about Shelter’s services or campaigning, please contact info@shelter.org.uk with the subject line ‘BRC Shelter’
With your help, you can ensure people continue to get the help they need during this difficult time.