Housing charity Shelter has unveiled a new logo and its biggest campaign to date.
The charity is calling on the government to end bad housing for the next generation of children.

It says more than 1 million children live in unfit, overcrowded or emergency housing.

Shelter launched the Million Children Campaign yesterday by publishing a report, Toying with their Future, which sets out the impact of poor housing on children's health and education.

It follows Housing Today's Right to Room series earlier this year (HT 27 February, page 18), which first highlighted the issue.

The report says one in 12 children are more likely to develop tuberculosis, asthma or bronchitis because of bad housing, and adds that homeless children miss out on a quarter of their schooling.

The study calls for more investment in new housing, better regulation of the private rented sector, more advice and support services to prevent homelessness and better neighbourhoods.

The £750,000 campaign and logo are part of Shelter's efforts to raise public awareness of its work as a housing charity rather than a rough sleepers' organisation.

Homelessness charities have suffered from the perception that rough sleeping is the only housing problem and that it has now been solved.

Communications and campaigns director Ben Jackson said: "We are a campaign and service provision organisation dealing with the whole spectrum of housing need.

"Our concern was the huge gap between the reality of housing problems and the perception of the public that is still focused on street homelessness."

The two-year project hopes to get supporters more involved in Shelter's campaign work. Jackson said: "We hope to get a network of individuals who will actively support the campaigns – write letters and that kind of thing."

Source

Housing Today