Children who are homeless 2018

This is one of a series of topic briefings relating to housing and homelessness. This is a statistical briefing looking at the number of children who are homeless.

Key points:

- In 2017/18, 14,075 children were in households assessed as homeless, this is equivalent to 38 children becoming homeless every day.

- On 31st March 2018, 6,615 children were living in temporary accommodation. This is the fourth consecutive year that this figure has increased.

- Households with children spend longer in temporary accommodation than households without children (201 days compared to 161 days).

- Homelessness can have drastic consequences for children and young people, across almost all areas of their lives; from health to education, homelessness leaves many children unable to realise their potential. These effects on a child's life have been shown to worsen the longer a child is homeless.

[Please note this report was edited on 30/07/18 to include the definition of a child as someone who is up to the age of 18 and listed as a dependent as part of a homeless application.]