HUNDREDS of households were tipped into homelessness last summer, figures reveal.

Shelter said thousands of families across the country became homeless during the Covid-19 crisis, and with living costs rising, more are at risk now.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities figures show that 211 households in Brighton and Hove became homeless between July and September 2021.

Of those, 38 were households with children.

Across England, 222,360 households have been pushed into homelessness since April 2020 – equivalent to a city larger than Brighton and Hove.

Councillor David Gibson, joint chairman of the council's housing committee, said he is "extremely concerned" about the effect that the rising cost of living is having on people in the city, with more than £300,000 of additional resource put towards the council's council tax reduction scheme for low income households.

He also said the council have provided temporary accommodation to around 800 additional households facing homelessness, as well as securing extra funding to support homeless people to move into longer term, more sustainable housing.

Cllr Gibson said: "The council has a range of options to support households who are threatened with homelessness, including early intervention initiatives to prevent loss of accommodation by sustaining existing tenancies.

"There is more work ongoing and we will be sending out a leaflet to every household in the city, with advice around getting support, for anyone who is understandably worried about fuel costs.

"We'd urge anyone facing housing problems to contact the council's housing options service early so that we can help them avoid becoming homeless."

Shelter said if someone has become repeatedly homeless over the 18 months, they would appear in the figures multiple times – though the charity estimates this to be a very small number of cases.

Osama Bhutta, director of campaigns at Shelter, said the pandemic has been "atrocious" for struggling families even with protections like the eviction ban and the £20 Universal Credit uplift.

He added: "Now, living costs are spiralling and all the protections are gone, even more people will be at risk of losing their homes.

"The economic impact of the pandemic has exposed the true cost of decades of failure to build the social homes we need, leaving millions in insecure homes they can barely afford."

Bailiff-enforced evictions were banned for a large part of the pandemic – a measure introduced by the Government to prevent renters from being made homeless – though the ban was lifted in England on May 31.

Containing the first three full months’ worth of data after the eviction ban was lifted, the latest statistics show 36,510 English households became homeless between July and September 2021 – the equivalent of 397 every day.

And Crisis said there are even more people across England "slipping through the cracks" who are not recorded in these figures.

Francesca Albanese, acting director of policy and external affairs at Crisis, said: “The pandemic showed us all just how important home is to a person, yet many thousands have been left without a safe and secure place to call their own.

"People are now struggling as the safety net of pandemic protections, such as the eviction ban and universal credit uplift, have been withdrawn.

"This also comes at a time when even more people are at risk of homelessness as the cost of living crisis squeezes household finances to breaking point."

A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said its actions had helped keep thousands of people in their homes.

A spokeswoman added: “Government interventions have also prevented almost 450,000 households from becoming homeless since 2017, supported by an extra £316 million this year, and we will also be ending no-fault evictions as soon as we can.”

Have you got a story for us? Email news@theargus.co.uk or contact us here.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep up with all the latest news.

Sign up to our newsletter to get updates sent straight to your inbox.

You can also call us on 01273 021 400.