MORE than 160 children will be homeless in Liverpool on Christmas day.
The rising housing market has forced hundreds of families on to the streets as landlords have cashed in on the property boom.
Homeless charity Shelter today blamed the problems on regeneration.
A Shelter report shows that housing market renewal Pathfinders scheme is leading to rising house prices encouraging property speculation from investors outside the city.
It claims about 164 children will bear the brunt of the crisis in Liverpool, having to live in hostels or away from their close family.
Liverpool has Pathfinders projects in Kensington, Toxteth and Anfield. There are also schemes running in Wirral, Knowsley and south Sefton.
Shelter director Adam Sampson said: "With rapidly rising levels of homelessness in many of these areas, an urgent review is needed to prevent money that has been intended to regenerate areas for the benefit of local people effectively ending up in speculators' pockets."
In Kensington, one of Britain's biggest Pathfinder projects, house prices have doubled and even trebled in the past year.
Some tenants across the region have seen ownership of their homes pass from one business to the next - and some tenants have been evicted through no fault of their own.
Daniel Austin, 10, had to live with relatives for eight months after the home he shared with his mother was sold by their landlord.
He said: "I just did not like it when I did not have my own home. It was very upsetting. It was hard when I was at school and all of my friends were talking about going home and I did not have a home to go to."
News RSS Feed