John* was in the early stages of medical transition. Deciding to live openly as a trans man, after many years of deliberating, had caused his marriage to break down and compromised access to his child. These events led to serious mental health repercussions for him. When John was interviewed for a new Shelter […]
By Paul Bevan Today marks two years since the shocking and tragic fire at Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, in which 72 people died and more than 70 others were injured. The impact of the tragedy became even more alarming as, very quickly, we learnt that the fire’s colossal impact was largely avoidable, had different […]
The Welsh Government has commissioned an important piece of work to look at the impact and consequences of amending or even abolishing the priority need test in Welsh homelessness legislation – John Puzey considers the test and the consequences of not abolishing it. When the Homeless Persons Act was first introduced in 1977 the […]
This week the Senedd passed legislation to ban letting agents from charging fees to tenants. It was a landmark day for our campaign supporters, who worked with us three years ago to build the Letting Go campaign. Our campaigners carried out a mass mystery shop of agents across Wales – visiting high street premises, […]
Just over a year ago Shelter Cymru researchers interviewed 100 street homeless people in three parts of Wales. The results of that study were stark: people were literally trapped on the streets, partly by their own ill health and partly by the inability of services to reach out and offer the right kind of […]
A recent exercise undertaken by Shelter Cymru’s Take Notice project shows why it is important that service providers make a continual effort to listen to the views of real people. Is there a better way to find out what’s being done well in homelessness services and what needs to be improved, than by asking the […]
It’s great to see evictions from social housing continue to decline in Wales. Clearly there is a determination by most social landlords to do all they can to prevent people from becoming homeless, a real challenge in the context of austerity and the Universal Credit rollout. But even with figures at their lowest for years, […]
It’s fantastic that the Welsh Government has made extra money available to prevent and tackle youth homelessness. We’ve been at the forefront of early prevention work for many years, providing housing advice and education to young people to help them leave home in a planned way. This funding is much needed to increase the […]
Leanne* contacted the Shelter Cymru Live helpline earlier this year because her landlord was trying to evict her and her children for rent arrears. She knew there would be some arrears due to Universal Credit, but the amount the letting agent told her she owed was incredible to her. She’d been trying really hard […]
By Jennie Bibbings This week’s news highlighted the gaping loopholes in English law that allow criminal ‘rogue’ landlords to continue to operate even after being banned. Most of the coverage lumped England and Wales together – leading to much tweeting and use of the #thatsdevolved hashtag – and ignored the progress that we’ve made towards […]
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