Rise in families seeking help to pay for homes

Shelter has seen a 76 per cent rise in calls to its helpline from people in Yorkshire and the Humber struggling to pay for their homes over the last two years.

The charity says the figures reflect the growing number of people in the region facing an ongoing battle to keep up with their housing costs.

And with so many people already living on a financial knife-edge, a job loss or serious illness can be all it takes to tip someone into a spiral that ends in homelessness, the charity warned.

It was the unexpectedly losing his job that left one Sheffield father-of-two at serious risk of losing his home.

The 34-year-old said losing his job in the building trade was “a bolt out of the blue” and his financial situation was further darkened by discovering rent on the family home had been undercharged, leaving the family in arrears.

He said: “We would have never expected to be in the position when we could have lost our home.

“There is a very fine line between success and failure, and things changed so quickly. The amount we owed snowballed and we got stuck in a rut.”

The family sought help from Shelter who paid their arrears and offered financial advice, enabling them to get back into financial health.

He added: “Shelter helped us overcome our problems and move forward, without their help, the rut would have got bigger and bigger.”

The charity has launched an appeal calling for urgent support as it struggles to meet demand. Last year, nearly 54,000 of calls went unanswered across the country.

Shelter helpline adviser Nadeem Khan said: “It’s heartbreaking to hear from families everyday who are desperate to keep a roof over their heads, but it’s even worse to know that at any given time there could be others waiting desperately on the line who we just can’t get to.

“For many people – from a family who have been evicted and have nowhere else to go, to a parent who has lost their job and is struggling to keep their head above water – we are the only place they can turn for help.

“Cut after cut to the housing safety net has left many families facing a downward spiral towards homelessness. We need more support than ever so that we can be there to answer every call for help.”

A family in Britain loses their home every 11 minutes, said Shelter’s chief executive Campbell Robb. He added: “With more and more people having to stretch their finances to breaking point in a bid to makes ends meet, it’s not hard to see why.

“Our advisers can be the difference between a family keeping their home or losing it, which is why we urgently need more support to make sure that no call for help goes unanswered.”