Moving people out of temporary accommodation by boosting the supply of social homes

Our project in partnership with Shelter Cymru

11,273 individuals called temporary accommodation home at the end of 2023, over a quarter of which were dependent children. These numbers have risen consistently since the start of the pandemic with more than double the number of people living in temporary accommodation now than in December 2020.  Temporary accommodation is used by local authorities to fulfil their homelessness duties. People will have a vastly different experience of living in this accommodation depending on its nature and the facilities provided. At its worst, it could be one hotel room for a whole family and sharing facilities with others.  

The rising numbers and increasing length of time spent in temporary accommodation are the result of more people needing help to find somewhere to live and fewer people moving out due to the acute shortage of suitable, affordable homes. Progress towards the Welsh Government’s target of 20,000 additional social homes is slow and affordable options in the private rental sector are limited.

Aims

Working with our project partners Shelter Cymru, we aim to: 

• increase understanding of why living in temporary accommodation is unacceptable
• explore the reasons for the acute shortage of affordable permanent accommodation
• develop innovative, deliverable solutions to increase the supply of social homes
• ensure that people in temporary accommodation have access to those homes. 

What we’re doing

Our research will be organised into four workstreams – land use and the planning system, allocation policies, tenure change and loss of stock. We’ll be: 

• Collecting and sharing the stories of people living in temporary accommodation working with researchers who have lived experience of homelessness themselves
• Analysing existing data and creating our own insights through Freedom of Information requests and surveys
• Holding conversations with a broad range of stakeholders from the housing sector  
• Influencing the Welsh Government, local authorities and social landlords to adopt our recommendations.

Planned Outputs 

• A case for change paper
• A report on our learning from each workstream and launch event
• Active dissemination and raising of awareness
• Inform the preparation of all party manifestos ahead of the 2026 Senedd elections. 

Funder

The project is funded by the Lloyds Bank Foundation