Charity warns of widespread homelessness as coronavirus eviction band ends
A leading anti-poverty charity has warned that “around a million” households are at risk of losing their homes as England’s Covid-19 eviction ban comes to an end on Monday (May 31).
According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), already 400,000 renters have received eviction notices or been told to expect them in the near future.
At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, bailiffs in England were asked by the government not to enforce evictions if anyone living in the property had Covid-19 symptoms or was self-isolating.
To that end, eviction notice periods were extended to six months as an emergency measure but will drop to four months from Tuesday (June 01).
Before the pandemic, eviction notice periods were typically two months in England.
JRF economist, Rachelle Earwaker, claims many renters in “low income” jobs such as “catering” or “taxi driving” had lost their livelihoods in the pandemic and ending the eviction ban risks “a two-tier recovery”.
"We're really worried that there will be a wave of homelessness coming through", Earwaker warned.
Earlier this month, JRF commissioned the market research and data analytics company, YouGov, to question more than 10,000 people on the issue, a quarter of them comprising renters in England, Wales and Scotland.
The findings indicate that compared with homeowners, renters are more than three times as likely to be struggling with rent and utility bills.
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