Sofa Surfing

A shortage of affordable housing has left 130,000 children homeless in England this Christmas – an increase of 128 per cent in the past decade, according to research by the shadow housing minister Grant Shapps...

The "social failure" of child homelessness is often followed by mental, physical and educational disadvantage. A homeless child is twice as likely to be admitted to an Accident & Emergency department, four times as likely to have respiratory infections and six times as likely to suffer speech impediments, as a child with a fixed address.

While this plight, as reported in today's Independent, is of course very real, lack of stable family life can be just as devastating as (and, indeed, a cause of) lack of permanent accommodation on a child's health and development. What these children need is more than just bricks and mortar.