Recovering from homelessness can be a tough journey but temporary housing can help, at least in the short-term.
What is temporary housing?
Temporary housing, or temporary accommodation, is a place you can live while searching or waiting for a permanent home. This is provided by your local council if you have applied for and been offered help with homelessness.
The type of place you’ll live in can vary but temporary homes are often:
When offering you a temporary home, the council should consider factors that are important to you and your safety. This can include wanting to stay in your local area, being near your job or children’s school and what you can afford as monthly rent.
However, they can’t promise these preferences will be met as temporary accommodation availability is limited.
How can I access temporary housing?
If you find yourself without a home, your local council will have a ‘duty of care’ to help you find somewhere to live.
This means if you’re sleeping rough, living on a friend’s sofa or living in an unsafe home (e.g. with an abusive family member) you could receive support from your local council.
It’s important to remember that some people are not entitled to support from the council. For example, your immigration status may affect what support you’re entitled to.
If the council reject your application for help with homelessness, you have the right to appeal their decision or you could seek support from a local homeless charity instead, like The Connection.
What issues are there with temporary housing?
While having a roof over your head is (in the majority of cases) safer than staying outside, temporary accommodation can have its problems.
These can include:
We also see some cases of people staying in temporary housing for long periods of time as they aren’t being offered a suitable permanent home.
This can be distressing and make people feel like they’ve been left without a home. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough affordable or supportive housing in London (or the rest of the UK).
There are also a lot of people waiting to be given a home and the wait times can be very long!
This presents a real issue but The Connection is working to make things easier for people struggling.
What is The Connection doing to help?
One of our most exciting up-and-coming projects is St. Martin’s House.
Many women feel unsupported by and unsafe in traditional supported housing with mixed-gender spaces.
That’s why we’ve created a temporary accommodation project for women. The hope is that, after two years with our support, the women living in St. Martin’s House will be ready to move into permanent housing.
While living here, residents are supported to prepare for a more independent and stable future. This can include access to therapy, employability training and more to make sure their their next home is a permanent one.
We hope this will serve as a model for what temporary housing can and should be: a safe, supportive and accessible living space for people as they work on their journey home.
If you need help
We know that finding temporary housing can be tricky but The Connection is here to support you.
Pop into our centre in Westminster (Monday-Friday*, 9am-1:30pm) for a quick chat about how we can help you. We also have food, showers and more services for you to use.
Or you can give us a call on 020 7766 5544 to see how we can support you.
Whatever you’re going through, The Connection is here to lend a helping hand to people sleeping rough in Westminster.
*On Wednesdays Mornings, we run a women-only space. If you don’t identity as a woman, please visit us on another day or go to another local service.