Glass Door fed into a recent report that independent researcher Becky Rice conducted for Commonweal Housing, entitled No Access, No Way Out. The report, subtitled “How a lack of availability and rising prices in the private rented sector impact move-on options for people experiencing homelessness”, also featured input from a number of other charities, as well as people with lived experience of homelessness.

About the report

No Access, No Way Out looks at some of the barriers that people face when trying to move on from homelessness towards stable accommodation, including the unaffordability, insecurity and poor quality of private rented accommodation, inadequacies in the benefits system and disincentives to work. It paints a very comprehensive picture that matches what we see on the ground very closely.

Our Head of Operations and Service Development shared insights from Glass Door’s experience that were quoted at various points in the report. He had the following to say:

"I was happy to add Glass Door's perspective to this report. The system is broken and it is entrapping people with no access and no way out."

Quotes from Glass Door in the report

Here are some excerpted quotes from Matt that featured in No Access, No Way Out:

“For under 35s my note says, ‘Nothing available.’ We basically have to go supported accommodation for those people. So, we see a massive amount, we’re [seeing] 45% under 35 and so we know that it’s much harder, nearly impossible, to house in PRS for those under 35.”

“We’re seeing so many people from the Home Office cessation programme, which are, by and large, young men ... Our demographics are completely different than in past years and different than expected because of the Home Office cessation. 17% of all of those 1,100 referrals are Eritreans alone, but I wasn’t prepared to have Amharic or Tigrinya materials. Translation for those two languages is particularly difficult to do well. There’s cultural competencies that we could’ve actually planned for.”

“They’re now doing a lot of mass viewings. So, in the past you’d go and see, ‘You want it? OK, put in an application.’ Now ... 10+ people are showing up all at once and they’re just disadvantaging guests because they’re taking the people that look a certain way, right? It’s just a way for them to do an eyeball test on people. That really changes the power balance.”

“There are plenty of people in night shelters right now that are in receipt of benefits and are ready to go – we just can’t find a place that is acceptable and able to move in.”

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You can read the full report on Commonweal Housing's website: https://www.commonwealhousing.org.uk/no-access-no-way-out