130,000 children will be homeless at Christmas in the UK

London CNN — One in every 103 children in the UK will be homeless this Christmas, a new study has found, further revealing the scale of the country’s housing crisis. An estimated 9,500 children will spend Christmas Day in a hostel or bed and breakfast, the charity added, warning that the UK’s housing crisis is now being “felt across a generation.” “Over the last five years, hundreds of thousands of children have known what it’s like to be homeless. “Back in the 1970s, you’d be shocked at someone sleeping on the street, and now people become immune to it.” A report last year by the UK’s National Audit Office blamed, among other factors, rises in rental costs and the capping and freezing of housing benefits, which began in 2011, for the rapid increase in homelessness across the country. It said the government’s approach to working with local authorities to tackle the problem was “light touch,” adding: “This contrasts with the more interventionist approach that it has taken during previous periods of high homelessness.” Last month, another Shelter study found that roughly one in 200 Britons is sleeping on the streets or in temporary accommodation.