By Rory Weal

Christmas is just three days away, but whilst most will be spending it in the warmth of their living room with their family, thousands of people, particularly young people, will be out on the street on Christmas Day, writes Rory Weal.

Originally published by Left Foot Forward

Recent government figures make for grim reading; the number of households declared homeless so far this year is up by 13 per cent from the same period last year.

Thirty five thousand six hundred and eighty households have been accepted as homeless by local authorities since the start of 2011 and many more are projected to suffer a similar fate.

As the festive season looms thousands of people are facing the prospect of a Christmas out in the cold, as government cutbacks throw thousands out of their homes at the same time as an economic storm engulfs the livelihoods of many, with young people bearing a substantial brunt of the crisis.

On Tuesday housing charity Shelter revealed almost 70,000 children will wake up on Christmas Day in temporary accommodation, without a home to call their own.

Commenting on the figures, Kay Boycott, Shelter’s director of communications, policy and campaigns, said: “It’s a shocking fact that every two minutes someone in Britain faces losing their home. All it takes is one small thing like illness or job loss to push families into a spiral of debt and homelessness.”

The figures from Shelter come alongside a report by another homelessness charity, Crisis, which showed (pdf) that the average age of death for a homeless person is just 47 compared with 77 for the general population.

These figures emerge against a backdrop of rising homelessness on a scale not seen since the 1980s.