Housing charities have held demonstrations on Market Street after the declaration of a Greater Manchester ‘private rent emergency’ on World Homelessness Day.
Campaigners have been protesting as four Greater Manchester housing charities launched a campaign for major changes in the private rental market to protect those at risk of homelessness.
Stepping Stone Projects, Mustard Tree, The Booth Centre, and Shelter Greater Manchester aim to push rental reform high up the agenda, and are calling on politicians to recognise the scale of the homelessness problem.
Dave Smith, Chief Executive of Stepping Stone Projects, said: “We have seen a rapid growth in homelessness and surging demand for temporary accommodation from local people.
“Soaring rents and inadequate rights have led to this emergency.”
The charities have published research which shows the termination of private tenancies is the main reason for households facing homelessness in Greater Manchester.
Private rental homes account for 44% of cases where households are at risk of homelessness, and most of Greater Manchester’s 60,000-plus private tenancies can be terminated at short notice on a ‘no fault’ basis.
Rents for new tenancies have risen by around 12% across Greater Manchester, whilst in some areas rents have increased by 38% over the past year, according to research from Dataloft and Urbanbubble.
John Ryan, Greater Manchester Strategic Lead for Shelter, said: “Thousands of people are effectively locked out of the private rented sector by soaring rents”.
The situation is made worse by the freezing of Local Housing Allowance rates at 2018/19 rent levels. Only 4% of new tenancies in Greater Manchester were within Housing Allowance rates.
Worse still, many private rental sector homes are in poor condition. Data from the Department for Levelling Up suggests that over one-in-four of Greater Manchester’s privately rented properties would not meet the ‘decent home’ standard.
Meanwhile research from Shelter and YouGov found private renters who complain are two-and-a-half times more likely to be evicted than those who do not.
There was a hint of good news in the charities’ statement, however. Levels of rough sleeping, still a most visible problem on Manchester’s streets, have fallen from their historic highs.
Shelter’s John Ryan said: “We’ve seen positive steps to address rough sleeping and homelessness in Greater Manchester.
“But the problems that we see will continue to grow without reform of the private rented sector.”
The charities are calling for a rental reform programme of “4 Rs”: increased regulation of tenancies, introduction of rent control, an increase in the rates of Local Housing Allowance, and the strengthening of tenant’s rights.
