Temporary accommodation Last month, official figures showed a 21% fall over the last year in homeless households placed in temporary accommodation across England.
For the past five years the number of households in the capital meeting the definition of "statutory homelessness" and placed in temporary accommodation has been edging up.
Households accepted as homeless by their local council will often be placed in temporary accommodation until a more permanent home can be found for them.
The play follows three families who have been placed in temporary accommodation, exposing a side to Christmas that is rarely made visible.
Eventually I was told that I had met the threshold to be placed in safe accommodation while my case was reviewed to see if I was "in priority need".
Based on Freedom of Information requests, Shelter estimates that almost half of all homeless families placed in temporary accommodation by London councils in the year to June 2015 were sent out of area.
Many people who are placed in temporary accommodation in outer London – and deal with some horrendous conditions, jars of bugs and all – are travelling enormous distances to work or school.
Record numbers of homeless households are being placed in emergency accommodation often far from their previous home and miles from jobs, schools, family and friends, a housing charity has said.
The company, which sent out almost 200 claims advisers and adjustors, said about 90% of the first damage assessment visits had been completed and all customers whose homes had become uninhabitable had been placed in alternative accommodation.
Peter Hall, coordinator of Croydon Refugee Day Centre, works with a lot of families placed in initial accommodation in Brigstock House, another site for temporary accommodation, and said that at any one time there may be up to eight families placed there whose children have been denied access to school.
