365 Chelmsford households, 251 with children, were in temporary homes outside the city in August. The council's new homelessness strategy sets out what it plans next.
In August, 365 homeless Chelmsford households were living in temporary accommodation outside the city. Of those, 251 have children under 18. The figures are in the city council’s revised homelessness strategy, which its Cabinet approved on Tuesday 13 October (Chelmsford City Council, Cabinet report and strategy).
The council’s own announcement of the strategy does not mention the out-of-area figure (Chelmsford City Life, 15 October 2026). The strategy itself is blunt about it. “Too many households are having to be placed into properties that are outside of the Chelmsford area,” it says.
The revision was needed because the government published a National Plan to End Homelessness in December 2025. Every council has to bring its strategy into line with it by December 2026.
The numbers behind the strategy
The number of households in temporary accommodation rose from 523 to 587 over the last 12 months. Of the 587, 409 are families with children and 178 need a one-bedroom home.
The strategy also gives these figures:
- 365 households placed outside the Chelmsford area as of August 2026: 251 with children and 94 single households
- 367 households in “nightly let” rooms from private landlords at the end of March 2026, which the council calls “more costly and less secure”
- 1,051 households assessed as homeless in 2025/26, up 40 on the year before
- 195 homes available to let through the Housing Register in 2025/26, the first time the figure has fallen below 200, against an assessed need of 623 a year
- 19 people sleeping rough on the night of the official 2025/26 count, and an average of 27 at any one time across a month
The council’s news post describes the 195 as homes built for affordable rent. The strategy itself describes them as the supply of homes available to allocate through the Housing Register. We have used the strategy’s wording.
The gap is worst for big families. The strategy’s table shows 81 households waiting for a home with four or more bedrooms, and two such homes available in 2025/26. For three-bedroom homes it was 138 households and 34 homes.
That is why the waits are so long. Single people and couples can expect two to three years in temporary accommodation before an offer. A family needing three bedrooms faces four to five years, and “for those needing the largest homes their wait will be far longer”.
Why people are losing their homes
The strategy breaks down the main causes for 2025/26:
| Cause | Households | Change on the year |
|---|---|---|
| Asked to leave by family or friends | 349 | up 6% |
| Notice from a private landlord | 225 | up 8% |
| Domestic abuse | 152 | down 19% |
| Leaving hospital or prison | 134 | up 15% |
The fall in domestic abuse cases follows a pilot that moves the abuser out of the home instead of the person they harmed. The council says that brings Chelmsford closer to the regional and national averages. The rise in people leaving an institution is mostly people discharged from hospital.
Renting privately is getting harder for the council to use. In 2025/26 it helped 62 households into private tenancies through its rent deposit and tenancy schemes, at a cost of £243,949. The year before, it helped 68 for £210,417. The strategy puts the gap between the average rent and housing benefit at about £200 a month for a one-bedroom home, and close to £700 a month for three bedrooms.
The strategy also flags something new. A “small but growing number” of people in their 60s and 70s are becoming homeless in Chelmsford. The council says it has not seen this group before, and will monitor the cases to find out why.
What the council plans to do
The strategy’s main actions on temporary accommodation are:
- securing an agreement with a local landlord for 60 more units in the centre of Chelmsford, cutting the need to place people elsewhere and, it hopes, adding wheelchair-accessible rooms
- building modular homes on council land at Meteor Way, also in the city centre
- renewing contracts with local providers so most nightly lets come from local agencies
- exploring whether families already placed outside Chelmsford could be found permanent homes where they now live, so children do not have to change school
The wording matters on the first of these. The council is “securing” the 60-unit deal, so it is not yet signed.
It also sets two targets. It wants more than half of the people who come to it at risk of homelessness to keep their home or move somewhere settled from 2027/28, up from 41% in 2025/26. And it wants to help 20% more households into private rented homes through its deposit schemes than it does now.
The council expects the Renters’ Rights Act to cut homelessness caused by private landlords’ notices by about 30%.
Councillor Kieron Franks, the Cabinet member for a Fairer Chelmsford, said: “Councils are fighting a rising tide, trying to keep people housed and stable as homelessness and the cost-of-living rise.” He said the strategy “gives us clear targets to work towards”, and added: “Some will be hard to hit.”
What it means for you
- If you are worried about losing your home, contact the council early on 01245 602400 or through chelmsford.gov.uk/housing. The council’s prevention work depends on hearing from people before they are homeless.
- If you rent privately and get a notice, contact the council straight away. Private landlord notices were the second biggest cause of homelessness in the city last year.
- If you are worried about someone sleeping rough, report it to StreetLink. The message goes to an outreach worker.
- If you are looking to rent, our Chelmsford house prices page has the latest average private rents for the city.
Sources
- Chelmsford City Council, Cabinet report, 13 October 2026, agenda item 7.1, and the revised Homelessness and Rough Sleepers Strategy, for every figure, target and action above
- Chelmsford City Life, Chelmsford steps up plans to end homelessness as housing crisis pressure grows, 15 October 2026, for the Cabinet date and Councillor Franks’s comments
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