The six local organisations received around £10,000 each from a London charity and will now launch a forum supporting people in temporary housing

A former office building, Brickfield House in Southbury is used by Enfield Council to house hundreds of people in temporary accommodation — Brickfield House in Southbury is used by Enfield Council to house hundreds of people in temporary accommodation

Grants worth a total of around £60,000 have been handed to six Enfield community groups which will now work together to help support local people living in temporary accommodation.

The support from Trust for London will be used to launch the ‘Enfield Temporary Accommodation Forum’, through which the community groups will work together in partnership with Enfield Voluntary Action and campaigns expert Albinia Stanley to develop projects carrying out research, spotlighting issues and campaigning for change.

The six organisations chosen to be involved, which will each receive around £10,000, are All People All Places, North Star Community Trust, Hearts and Helpers, Diversity Rights, Cooking Champions and Dalmar Heritage and Family Development

Trust for London grants manager Susie Dye said: “We were encouraged by the Enfield groups’ response to this funding opportunity.

“The strongest applications went beyond advice casework to explore project ideas, and showed they were motivated to use stories and experiences to press for change. We’re looking forward to working together on this critical issue.”

Trust for London is itself involved with a newly-launched campaign urging borough councils to commit to the “five basics” of temporary housing – kitchen facilities, laundry facilities, storage space, Wi-Fi internet and clear information about their situation – which it says should be essential to provide for any homeless family.

Overall, 76,000 households are now in temporary accommodation across London, a yearly increase of 10%.

Enfield has long had one of the highest rates of temporary housing in London and the UK. Between 2022 and 2023 the problem escalated significantly, with hundreds of families forced to live in hotels for weeks and months on end, beyond the legal six-week limit for such accommodation.

The crisis eventually led Enfield Council to review its policy for dealing with its statutory housing duties, after which many homeless Enfield households ended being moved out of hotels to temporary homes in far-flung places such as Hartlepool and Durham.

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