Schools and teachers are struggling to support children living in temporary accommodation, as childhood homelessness hits record levels in London.
Damning research published by homelessness charity Shelter reveals there were 97,140 children without a permanent home in the capital in 2025.
Furthermore, research carried out by Teacher Tapp for the charity highlights the issues teachers and schools are facing as they struggle to support pupils stuck in a housing system that is failing families and damaging children’s education.
Almost three quarters of teachers (73%) in state schools in London have worked at a school with children who are homeless in the past year.
Sarah Elliott, chief executive of Shelter, said: “The housing emergency is infiltrating our classrooms and robbing children of their most basic need of a safe and secure home.
“Children shouldn’t have to try and balance their studies with the horrific experience of homelessness.”
To understand the impact of homelessness on school-age children, Shelter worked with the teachers’ union NASUWT to survey its members who had worked with children experiencing homelessness in the past year.
The findings show that children growing up without a safe and secure home experience exhaustion, missed school days, and poor mental health.
Three quarters (76%) of the teachers who responded said that being homeless had led to both children performing poorly in assessments or exams, and a negative impact on their mental health.
Matt Wrack, NASUWT General Secretary, said: “Homelessness is taking an enormous physical and emotional toll on children and young people, which is adversely affecting their education and ability to learn.
“These children’s future life chances are being put at risk due to their lack of a secure, safe and permanent home.
“If their education suffers now, that is likely to have repercussions which could potentially last a lifetime.”
Teachers who see the impact on children in their classrooms are having to adapt and provide additional pastoral support, as well as practical support such as internet dongles to students who do not have a stable home.
Andrew Webb, deputy head of year and careers leader at Featherstone high school in Ealing has seen a noticeable rise in children affected by homelessness, with many being forced to move hours away from their school.
Webb said: “There is a growing number of young people who are living in temporary accommodation, or who are being constantly moved, they will have had three, four or five addresses during their time in secondary school.”
Nine in ten (92%) teachers responding to the survey said children experiencing homelessness have arrived at school tired, with many placed out of area, resulting in longer school journeys.
Webb said: “I have a young person that has been moved from very close to the school to outside London, and now has a two hour journey to school.
“Some students do step up and show huge resilience, but you get others who channel it through disruptive behaviour in school, or it has an impact on their mental health and they suffer from anxiety or depression.”
Mairi MacRae, director of policy and campaigns at Shelter said: “Many London councils are forking out eye-watering sums on inherently damaging temporary accommodation to house families experiencing homelessness.
“Councils can’t solve a crisis of this magnitude on their own, which is why the government needs to step in and start building social rent homes.”
“The only way to tackle homelessness and get every child into a safe and secure home is for the government to start building social rent homes – we need 90,000 a year for ten years.
“These are the only genuinely affordable types of homes because rents are tied to local incomes.”
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