Richmond borough has seen a shock rise in homelessness despite its status as one of the wealthiest parts of Britain.

The reality is that the high cost of housing and rents in the borough are putting a real strain on households struggling to pay for essentials such as heat, light, food and transport.

At the same time, council chiefs have flagged up potential costs associated with the need to house refugee families from Ukraine, whose placements with local families are coming to an end.

The Council has appealed to Richmond residents and landlords to help them find homes, particularly larger properties for family groups.

Citizens Advice in Richmond has pointed out that the problem is being exacerbated by a real problem of illegal discrimination by landlords and estate agents against would-be tenants who are on benefits.

Credit: Citizens Advice Richmond.

Council documents reveal that the cost of housing the homeless, including providing temporary accommodation, is running some £565,000 ahead of expectations.

At the same time, it is known that the Richmond foodbank, which operates from The Vineyard Community Centre with other distribution points in Barnes, Hampton, Whitton, Teddington, has seen a big increase in demand.

Credit: Richmond Foodbank.

A report to the Council's Adult Social Services, Health & Housing Committee, which is meeting on February 9, identified the rising problem with homelessness. It predicted the department's total overspend across all the services it runs for the 2022-23 financial year will be around £171,000 against a budget of £57.107m.

It states: "The main cause of the overspend is a direct homelessness accommodation forecast overspend of £565,000 which reflects that the current target for the year end number in temporary accommodation of 512 for 2022/23 is proving to be exceptionally challenging.

"The driving issue has been higher homelessness demand during the current economic difficulties and cost of living crisis.

"It is well known that economic factors strongly influence levels of homelessness (with the Council having statutory duties to meet demand), and the impact of the cost of living crisis on household incomes (through rising inflation on basic food and energy costs in particular) and the predicted recession, has seen pressures on temporary accommodation increase."

The report pointed out that on top of the increase in the numbers of homeless, the cost of finding suitable accommodation is also rising.

It stated: "It is also clear that there have been significant increases in the amounts that landlords are charging for placements (particularly for families/larger properties) as they seek to recover their own increased costs.

"Landlords will have faced increased pressures, including increased utility bills and higher mortgage rates. Because rent charges to clients are set independently in line with affordability (usually at a level covered by welfare benefit) the Council cannot recover these charge increases unless statutory regulations on benefit levels are changed."

The official documents state that the overspend has been offset to a large extent by a large underspend of £331,000 on homelessness prevention.

On help for refugees, the report states: "There is a specific developing challenge relating to the Ukrainian sponsorship schemes, if and/or when community and family

sponsorship placements break down or otherwise come to a natural end and homelessness assistance is sought, with this being an unfortunate corollary of the generous response of borough residents in welcoming those in need.

"A recent BBC survey suggested that a quarter of community sponsors wished not to or felt unable to continue to accommodate their Ukrainian guests beyond the six-month period originally committed to which presents a significant ongoing risk of a spike in homelessness demand from this source for at least some of the families accommodated, noting that many will have had the opportunity to find work or otherwise seek sources of income.

"At the date of drafting this report over 90 Ukrainian households had approached the council as homeless with 21 provided with temporary accommodation. It should be noted however that the budgetary impact in this financial year is limited as this continues to be fully funded by additional grant support being provided by the Government linked to the Homes for Ukraine scheme."

* Citizens Advice can offer help and advice to people facing eviction - https://www.citizensadvicerichmond.org/

* Richmond Foodbank relies on donations. Details of how to support it can be found at this link - https://richmond.foodbank.org.uk/