This is likely to be an underestimate, as the government scheme makes it harder to identify who is homeless.
The worst affected cities were London, with 143 deaths, followed by Liverpool City Region (46), Greater Manchester (35), Birmingham (21), Bristol (20) and Leeds (18)
Last year the average age of homeless people dying was 45.9 for men and 41.6 for women.
That’s 30 years below the average for the population in England and Wales.
Even young, fit people in their 20s are dying after finding themselves on the streets. trib.al/kQrg7UA
An estimated 13 people – 1.9% – died with Covid 19 listed on their death certificate, according to the ONS.
Polly Neate, chief executive of @Shelter, said: ‘To think at least 688 people’s final days were spent homeless in the pandemic is a sobering thought. If it wasn’t for the government’s Covid response to help people off the streets even more lives would have been lost.
‘As we head into another hard winter with the virus still circulating, we cannot leave anyone out in the cold.
‘Our services are already being approached by people in need of emergency accommodation, who are being turned away by councils and often told they have no rights.'
‘The government must step in again to keep people safe from Covid and the ravages of homelessness this winter.'
‘Councils need clear guidance to ensure everyone at risk of sleeping rough is offered emergency accommodation, and the funding to provide it.’
By Jan 2021, 37,000 people were put in emergency accommodation or hotels under the £3.2million ‘Everyone In’ scheme – a response to the Covid-19 crisis.
But people were soon back onto the streets when hotels opened back up for business later in the year.
Figures from Network between April 2020 and March 2021, revealed that there was actually a 3% increase in the number of people sleeping on the streets during the pandemic.
A recent report by the Public Accounts Committee, warned that despite the initiative’s apparent success, the Government’s rough sleeping strategy is ‘out of date’.
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Using topography data, researchers have found clear evidence of a 3.5 billion-year-old shoreline around 900 meters thick, which covered thousands of square kilometers 📏
The findings point to a ‘higher potential’ for life on Mars than previously thought 📈👽
Jessikah Inaba, 23, qualified last week after studying for five years at the University of Law in London.
She managed to complete her studies after translating all her learning materials into braille with the help of her friends and tutors to fill in the gaps.
Jess, from Camden, has now joined the Bar 5 years since starting her studies in 2017. She said:
🗣 'It’s been crazy, I still can’t really believe I’ve done it.'
🗣️'Brixton has turned into a commuter space – it used to feel like a community but it no longer feels like it’s designed for families.'
Brixton has long been known for its large Afro-Caribbean population, which developed after much of the Windrush generation settled there from the late 1940s onwards 🗺
BREAKING: A man has attacked a migrant centre with petrol bombs before killing himself. trib.al/MLrBc1k
According to witnesses, the man threw petrol bombs with fireworks attached at a new British immigration border force centre in the southern English port of Dover and then killed himself.
Police arrived minutes afterwards and cordoned off the area. Fire crews were also in attendance.
Football clubs need to be ‘shining a light’ on their black pioneering players, with more research done to ensure players’ stories aren’t lost forever 💡⚽️
Arthur Wharton, the first black professional footballer, and Luther Blissett, the first black player to score a hat-trick for England, are some of the ex-players that have been widely celebrated in recent weeks 👏
Clubs have found new ways of highlighting the cultural contributions made by their sporting icons 🏆
On October 7, Plymouth Argyle erected a statue of pioneering black footballer Jack Leslie.