Temporary Accommodation
While it is imperative that decision makers maintain laser-like focus on addressing London’s housing crisis they must at the same time prioritise improving the immediate situation of the estimated 102,000 children living in temporary accommodation (London Councils, 2025).
The Government’s Child Poverty Strategy and National Plan to End Homelessness, published in late 2025, both focus welcome attention on tackling the temporary accommodation crisis. The Government has committed to ending the unlawful placement of families in Bed and Breakfasts beyond the six-week limit supported by investment in the Emergency Accommodation Reduction pilots programme and the Local Authority Housing Fund to provide better temporary accommodation.
We also welcome a new legal duty will also be introduced for councils to notify schools, health visitors, and GPs when a child is placed in temporary accommodation.
IRMO
IRMO (Indoamerican Refugee and Migrant Organisation) is leading the Fix the Five Basics campaign in Lambeth and is launching the Latin American Temporary Accommodation Forum with support from Trust for London. Find out more about their work here.
In nearly every borough across London the situation is acute. In all boroughs we have data for except one, there is a higher proportion of households in temporary accommodation (TA) than the England average. And in seven London boroughs, the proportion of residents in TA is five times higher than in the rest of England. (Trust for London, 2025). These figures do not include children of families living in hotels while their asylum claims are being processed.
With 79 % of households in TA in London staying for over a year (Shelter, 2023) children and families are living their lives in stasis. Without the security of safe and stable homes, families are trapped in poverty; parents are unable to find work, children’s health and education are adversely affected and their lives put on hold.
Myriad research reports give testimony to the extreme day to day difficulties families face while living in TA; mums face the impossible task of trying to feed babies and toddlers without access to kitchens and are forced into the invidious position of providing food that they know is harmful to them; children with SEND have to make journeys of up to two hours across the city to their special school when they are housed out-of-borough and young people taking their GCSEs must revise in noisy shared spaces without access to Wifi.
Lives on Hold Research
In November 2025 we published research looking at children and young people’s experiences of homelessness and poverty and the interaction between them. We undertook this work in partnership with 4in10 members New Horizon Youth Centre and the Cardinal Hume Centre.
These measures set out by Government will go some way towards meeting the calls of 4in10 Member, The Magpie Project’s ‘No Child in a Home without a Kitchen’ campaign, but further actions and sustained effort will be required to meet them in full. The campaign’s objectives are that:
The Government must provide Local Authorities with resources to ensure that no family has to live in a hotel without a kitchen for more than the 6-week legal limit.
The Government must provide Local Authorities with resources to ensure support families living in hotels without a kitchen with food vouchers, access to community kitchens and – where possible and safe– rings, hobs or microwaves in their rooms.
The Government must introduce legislation to ban the use of hotels with no kitchens to house families with children under five.
The Magpie Project’s ‘Rights, Experience, Advocacy, Change’ (REACH) Team is made up of mums who have, or are currently having, experiences of living in both contingency and emergency hotels. The REACH Team lead the ‘No Child in a Home without a Kitchen’ campaign. Read about their experiences and demands for change here.
Calls to Action
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The GLA should fund pilot projects to test better ways to provide support for families in TA so that they are properly connected with the services required to meet their essential needs and create the most stable situation possible while living in TA.
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Local authorities should ensure that temporary accommodation meets the standards called for by the ‘Fix the 5 Basics Campaign’ and in addition ensure that it is provides a safe environment for children including allowing parents to meet safe sleeping guidelines for babies.
Local authorities should work with providers of emergency and temporary accommodation in order to better meet the needs of individual families. This should include providing staff with training in trauma-informed approaches.
Local Authorities must continue to provide Discretionary Housing Support under the Crisis Resilience Fund & allocate additional funds to families at risk of homelessness.
Local authorities should take steps to improve communication between housing and children’s services departments so that responsibility for children and young people at risk of homelessness does not fall between them.
Local authorities must comply with the existing requirement to notify the host authority of a placement made-out-of-borough within 14 days and in due course implement the duty to be placed on local authorities to notify GP surgeries and schools as to the status of a newly homeless family.
Best Practice
Impact on Urban Health have worked alongside families, lawyers, housing professionals and health experts to develop guidance for supporting neurodivergent children and their families when forced into temporary housing.
