How the temporary accommodation crisis is affecting Londoners health and wellbeing

More than 170,000 Londoners are living temporary accommodation. That equates to around 1 in 50 Londoners – and one child in every classroom in the city.

As a funder focused on tackling inequality in London, Trust for London has increasingly funded projects working towards improving the lives of Londoners in temporary accommodation. Since 2022, in partnership with Oak Foundation and City Bridge Foundation, it’s provided grants to 14 projects aiming to strengthen the voice, connections and influence of people in temporary accommodation and ultimately to ensure that stays are as short, safe and healthy as possible.

Several of these projects have been carrying out research looking at the health implications of living in temporary accommodation. They’ve added to the body of evidence we have to understand the impact the temporary accommodation crisis is having on people’s lives.

Nearly two years on from the first grant, it’s a good moment to review and share some of these findings.

Introduction – temporary accommodation and health

When someone becomes homeless, their local authority has a duty to provide accommodation. While waiting for a home, people are often housed in temporary accommodation. Although it’s meant to be temporary, people can often find themselves in this situation for years.

It’s not hard to imagine that insecure accommodation affects people’s health. The damage caused by ever-longer stays in temporary accommodation is now widely acknowledged*:​

• Temporary accommodation has a detrimental impact on people’s physical health due to poor standards and a lack of repairs (including around damp and mould) as well as electrical safety and lack of storage.​
• It directly increases anxiety and mental health problems through e.g. living in unsafe conditions, traumatic incidents, the stigma attached to temporary accommodation as well as other forms of discrimination, and the impact of feelings of powerlessness and isolation.​
• It interrupts education, due to long journeys to maintain children’s schooling and lack of space to study, and damages the life chances of young people.​
• It adds to basic living costs and essentials such as cooking, laundry and internet access (required for managing benefit and housing claims) are often more expensive.​

Research and good practice from funded partners involved in the initiative shine a light on the health implications and long-term effects of stays in temporary accommodation. Here are some examples of the work that has been carried out.

The impact of temporary accommodation without kitchens

The Magpie Project in Newham has developed a body of good practice around community and public health partnerships and has published a briefing paper on the impact of living in temporary accommodation without kitchens.

This work has been achieved through Magpie’s brilliant work with their Mums’ Rights, Experience, Advocacy, Change (REACH) group, working with local partners, including public health, as well as a leading academic in child health, Professor Monika Lakhanpaul from UCL.

They’re currently campaigning on the issue of families living without any cooking facilities at all. Their briefing, Hungry, unhealthy, and heartsore: Families fed up of being unable to feed themselves identifies three ways in which temporary accommodation ‘takes its toll on our children’:

• Immediate harm – hunger, constipation, food allergies, late weaning, dental caries
• Long-term risks – obesity, poor relationship with food, diabetes heart disease
• Psychological-harms – depression, stress, disruption to family life, exhaustion, poor developmental foundation for school.

These harms suggest that long stays in temporary accommodation can have lifelong implications for children’s mental and physical health, as well as their life chances.

Isolation, insecurity and hopelessness

In September 2023, Groundswell published its peer research, Improving the health of people living in Temporary Accommodation in London, which focused on single people, many of whom were considered eligible for homelessness help because of mental health vulnerabilities.

From this we learnt that they experienced feelings of isolation, insecurity and hopelessness. The uncertainty of their accommodation had a significant impact on their emotional and mental wellbeing, whilst simultaneously posing barriers to accessing support to maintain their mental health.

The research showed that people felt their healthcare needs or mobility issues had not been considered when finding them somewhere to live. Several people described living in accommodation they found difficult to physically access. Others described their accommodation as poor quality and lacking basic facilities that would help them maintain their wellbeing.

Groundswell also found significant barriers to maintaining health and accessing appropriate and timely healthcare. Many people had been moved from one area to another, but continued to rely on healthcare services from their previous borough or neighbourhood. Sometimes, people who had been moved to a new area had to rejoin waiting lists to access treatment.

When people’s health worsened from living in temporary accommodation, the research found that it knocked their confidence and motivation to seek out support with their healthcare. This often meant people relied on support services to advocate for their health needs.

Accommodation that makes it hard for people to stay healthy

Our final example of funded partners’ research on health and temporary accommodation comes from Positive East who carried out in depth qualitative research with people living with HIV in East London.

They uncovered insights into some very specific needs. Some people’s medications require cold storage to keep them safely and with privacy; a lack of fridges interferes with this. Positive East interviewed 40 people in temporary accommodation and found that:

• 70% of people living with HIV were not satisfied with their temporary accommodation and identified safety, privacy and/or discrimination, including because of their HIV status, as key reasons why.
• The negative health impacts of being in temporary accommodation for some people living with HIV can be severe, including not adhering to treatment or maintaining their regular HIV care.
• Social networks are especially important to people living with HIV, who often go to great lengths to develop and maintain them. Being housed in temporary accommodation that is far from friends and family, and their chosen medical providers, impacts their wellbeing and the care they receive.

We are excited to be continuing our work to understand and improve Londoners in temporary accommodation’s access to and experiences of health services, including continuing to work with Groundswell and Positive East, and new partnerships with Disability Rights UK, The Care Rights Project and Praxis.

Our hope is that, ultimately a consensus will emerge that works to end the use of temporary accommodation within a decade. And until then, that all Londoners will be able to live in dignity.

Notes

*taken from our September 2023 temporary accommodation Showcase event summary

You can find more detail about the Better temporary accommodation initiative here.

Community Charity Sector and Newham Public Health Partnership Working: Slides first presented at Better temporary accommodation Showcase September 2023

Groundswell, Improving the health of people living in Temporary Accommodation in London, September 2023

Hungry, unhealthy, and heartsore: Families fed up of being unable to feed themselves, Magpie Project REACH team, May 24

Positive East, Temporary Accommodation for People Living with HIV: A community-based research study, 2024