One in eight children growing up homeless has a disability: 'Nobody cares about us'

Devastating data recently revealed that the number of children facing homelessness in England has reached another record high. This is a well-documented crisis, but new statistics show nearly one in eight children living in temporary accommodation has a disability.

New research has revealed an estimated 21,000 disabled children in England in total are growing up in
temporary accommodation.

Children’s charity Variety obtained the figures through sending Freedom of Information requests to all 296 local authorities in England. 

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“The results are appalling, quite frankly,” said Laurence Guinness, chief executive of Variety. “Thirteen per cent of all children living in temporary accommodation have a disability.”  

Families facing homelessness are placed in accommodation of this kind by councils while waiting for permanent accommodation. It is meant to be short-term but some people live there for months – and sometimes years – and campaigners argue it can be “unsafe” for vulnerable people. 

More than half of local councils were unable to provide data on disabled children in temporary accommodation, which Variety claims effectively renders these families “invisible” within official records. A total of 31 councils gave no response at all.  

“The number of councils who don’t record this information, don’t even capture it, has unearthed a wholly inadequate and tragic situation that needed to be brought into the open and needed to be a reference point for the systemic failings in society and in politics, actually, because these are conscious decisions,” Guinness said. 

It comes after disturbing recent data from The National Child Mortality Database showed that 104 children died with temporary accommodation listed as a contributory factor to their death between 2019 and 2025. 

Guinness said these statistics highlight a “horror beyond words” but he emphasises that there is also a “daily misery of life for those who have to endure this” which is going unacknowledged. 

Imogen, a single mother, was placed into temporary accommodation alongside her two children with special educational needs, a seven-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy, after they fled domestic violence. 

“They put me into a hotel where there were not enough beds and the space was small,” Imogen, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, says. “There was a double bed and a small standing bed for my daughter. My daughter is overweight so she couldn’t fit in that bed. I left the double bed for the kids and I slept on the floor.” 

Imogen and her children were living in that accommodation for around eight months.  

“We were without appliances to cook. The only things that we had were the shower and the bed. You had to buy the food,” Imogen says. 

She requested a microwave but this was refused. There were no laundry facilities so she had to go to a laundrette to keep her children’s clothes clean. 

There was mould in the room, which Imogen reported, and that was the only reason they were moved out of the hotel. They were moved into another temporary accommodation where they experienced significant issues with noise and neighbours, which Imogen says affected her mental health. 

Variety has found disabled children live in temporary accommodation for an average of six to 10 months, with some cases exceeding six years. The number of children in temporary accommodation has doubled since 2010. 

Guinness claimed that “poverty aggravates and worsens the impact of disability” and he believes that “successive governments have failed to treat children with disabilities with the dignity that they require and deserve”. 

“Thousands of children will be living out their lives, literally, in wholly unsatisfactory and damaging circumstances. And that is a tragedy,” Guinness said. 

Imogen and her children have since been placed in social housing but she claims it is still not accessible or suitable for their needs.  

Both children are autistic and Imogen’s daughter has problems with her knees and physicality which means she struggles to walk.  

Imogen believes it is “unsafe” because they have to climb stairs to the second floor, and her daughter often falls. 

“Nobody is listening. Nobody is caring about us,” says Imogen. 

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, said: “Children with disabilities deserve the very best support and councils must not place them in unsuitable temporary accommodation, or they could face court action.

“We’re introducing new laws requiring them to tell schools and GP practices when a child is placed in a temporary home, so no child misses out on the help they need.”

Another mother, Nedena Nai, found herself in a similar situation when she was moved into social housing by Croydon Council. It was a move she hoped would be temporary but she has now been there for more than a decade. 

She has seven children, three of whom are adults and four who still live with her, including 10-year-old twins who are both disabled. Her daughter is a wheelchair user and her son is autistic. 

“The home isn’t adapted to meet their needs at all. There are no disabled facilities in the property, and they’re saying there’s no room to do any adaptation to it either. We don’t have a wet room,” Nai told Big Issue.

“We don’t have a hoist. We don’t have equipment to help [my daughter] with her development. She’s out of school at the moment. She’s been out of school since she had her surgery in December.” 

Nai carries her daughter up flights of stairs to take her to rooms in the house, including the bathroom. “We have to pick her up and take her upstairs where the bathroom is to have a shower. At the moment, we have to limit the shower to once a week because my back is killing me.” 

It has affected Nai’s ability to work. “My sick records must be up the roof for the amount of times I’m off sick with my back, a headache or my mental health, because of what I’m going through at home. At the moment, I’m off work.” 

Figures from Contact, a charity for disabled children and their families, shows that 62% of parents of disabled children are forced to leave paid employment or reduce their working hours. This equates to an average annual income loss of £21,174, according to the research published in 2024. 

Nai has been signed of work by her GP because of her struggles with her back. She is unable to lift her daughter to get her outside the house, including for school or healthcare appointments. 

“I am literally like a prisoner in my home with my daughter because we can’t get out,” Nai says. 

Nai has been supported by Variety and Guinness says she is far from alone. He says he has heard from families with “children who haven’t been able to go to school, children that can’t adequately use a bathroom, children who are immobile essentially because the housing doesn’t facilitate mobility, and children who are breathing in damp and mould whose health is already compromised”.  

He also says “family members are having to break their backs to hoist their children up and down stairs where there’s no hoists or lifts”.  

Guinness calls this “a reflection of the the brutality in the housing sector that nobody really wants to acknowledge or address adequately”. 

Nai’s 10-year-old girl has had “quite a few falls off the stairs”, her mother says. The dining room on the ground floor has been turned into a bedroom so she does not have to go upstairs. It also means that emergency services can access the room more easily if needed, such as in the case of seizures. 

“I have the chairs still hanging about all over the place, but the table has been taken down to turn the room into a bedroom for [my daughter]. When she’s unwell, it’s hard for us to manage her up and down the stairs.” 

Nai’s 10-year-old boy, who has autism, sometimes gets “overwhelmed” because of the lack of space, with carers regularly coming into the house to support his sister. 

The impact says she is “losing sleep” over her housing issues. Her local council suggested another property for the family, but it was smaller than the house they are living in now. 

They have been living in this house since 2016, when the twins were babies.

A spokesperson for Croydon Council said: “We understand how challenging unsuitable accommodation can be for families with disabled children. Supporting families with complex needs is a priority for the council and we take Ms Nai’s situation seriously.” 

The spokesperson said the family’s housing requirements have changed significantly over time, and they now require a six-bedroom home that is accessible and suitable for their needs. When the home was initially allocated a decade ago, the council says the housing association property met their needs.

Nai has since had three more children, including the twins. Croydon Council claims to have been working with the housing association to find a six-bedroom home which is wheelchair accessible. 

“Like most London councils, large, good quality, wheelchair accessible social housing is in extremely short supply,” the spokesperson said.

Big Issue has previously reported on the lack of accessible social homes within this country. Disabled Big Issue vendor Jason has fought for more than 21 years for a home that meets his needs, and there are believed to be millions of people like him living in homes which are inaccessible, including children.

Variety is calling for immediate changes to protect disabled children. These include mandatory data collection, a ban on placing disabled children in emergency accommodation, maximum time limits they can spend in unsuitable temporary housing, quality regulation, and an end to benefit caps to prevent homelessness. 

“No disabled child should be placed in emergency accommodation ever,” Guinness said. “This shouldn’t happen.” 

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

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