Television has long had the ability to stir emotions or capture the public imagination. Who in recent weeks hasn’t been captivated by the drama unfolding in the animal kingdom on the BBC’s Planet Earth II, or drawn into office debate about the latest John Lewis Christmas advert?



Fifty years ago, on 16 November 1966, a television show was aired that provoked such public outrage it led to a change in the law and still shapes modern public policy.

A quarter of the British population tuned in for Cathy Come Home and were outraged at the plight of Cathy, husband Reg and their children. With prosperity and shiny new tower blocks rising in cities across the country, the fact that an ordinary family could descend so easily into poverty and homelessness shocked people deeply.

It was an impassioned environment for the official launch of Shelter two weeks later. Our founders were propelled by the public’s anger, and a decade later this resulted in radical changes to England’s homelessness laws. The 1977 Housing (Homeless Persons) Act enshrined in law that homeless families, such as Cathy’s, had a right to be rehoused by the council. It also ended the most brutal practices seen in the film; that of homeless families being split up and their children taken into care.

Five decades later it is a grave disappointment that Shelter continues to exist and fight many of the same battles. Shelter’s founders may have secured legal rights for families, but housebuilding, particularly of genuinely affordable homes, has slumped dramatically compared to the post-war period. The slums may have been cleared, but poor conditions remain stubborn and are now compounded by short-term tenancies and ever-rising rents.

This Christmas more than 120,000 children in our country will wake up homeless and living in temporary accommodation on 25 December. And, what’s worse is that a growing number of these children are being forced to live with their families in emergency B&Bs and hostels, a far cry from the safe and stable place to call home that every child in Britain should have.

Too many of them will be woken not by the anticipation of Christmas Day, but by the shouting and crying from the other rooms downs the corridor. They won’t excitedly pad down the stairs to open their presents, instead they will traipse downstairs to stand outside a filthy communal toilet in a queue with strange people.

They won’t return to their bedroom to play or read, or curl up on the living room sofa to watch TV, because they have no bedroom and there is no living room. Instead, they must climb over the fold-out beds of siblings and parents in the one room that they all have to share.

They won’t wander into the kitchen where their parents are busy cooking lunch as the kitchen is two floors away and has a sign that says “no children”. And, there will be no family or friends coming to visit in the holidays because the sign also says “no visitors”, and anyway there’s nowhere for anyone to sit – apart from on the bed.

Like the ordinariness of Cathy and Reg, the families we help are often homeless for something as simple as the landlord putting up the rent. Despite working, a drastic housing shortage has left too many parents unable to afford private rents or find a landlord willing to let to them.

While you won’t see these children sleeping on the streets, they are being deprived the most basic of opportunities – the chance to wake up in a place they can call their home. This is an utter scandal. But we can do something about it. Homelessness isn’t inevitable, it is caused by our chronic shortage of affordable homes.

But homes can’t be built overnight, which means right now we need your help. This Christmas, as a result of public donations, Shelter advisers will be there to answer calls from families desperate to escape their emergency accommodation. We do all in our power to provide legal, practical and moral support to every family who needs us, and we simply will not rest until every homeless child has a place to call home.

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