Housing policy puts children at risk

"Charities and politicians are demanding urgent changes to housing policy across Britain and warning that thousands of homeless children's lives may be at risk because they are disappearing from support services after being rehoused. "

"The calls come after an investigation by The Independent uncovered cases of homeless children dying from neglect and abuse after families were moved out of their local authority boundaries. Other evidence in the report suggested that the transfer of homeless families to other parts of the country could have resulted in suicides and miscarriages."

"Councils are shunting homeless families out of their local areas on an unprecedented scale to save money on accommodation, as the legacy of the housing crisis and the Government's cuts to welfare are felt, but they are frequently neglecting to share records with each other, meaning thousands of vulnerable women and children are completely off the radar of support services."

"Figures obtained exclusively by The Independent show that at least 64,704 homeless families were moved out by London boroughs between July 2011 and June 2015, with more recent data yet to be collated."
　

"A London Councils spokesperson said that the current information sharing database, called Notify, is `presently under review and the outcome of that review has not been decided` ".

"Sadiq Khan, Labour's candidate for Mayor of London, said he was `shocked at what The Independent has uncovered in this investigation` and that the practice `is tantamount to social cleansing`. "

" `Either the current Government, with the deep cuts they're imposing on local authorities, don't care or, worse still, are happy to sit by and let it happen,` he said. `What we need is nothing short of a complete overhaul of housing policy in London`."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/charities-call-for-urgent-action-to-prevent-death-of-more-homeless-children-a6966601.html