Housing charity Shelter says that additional funding and support from government is required to keep people in shared temporary accommodation safe from coronavirus infection.

The comment comes after the ministry of housing, communities and local government released fresh homelessness figures in England today, covering the third quarter of last year.

The data shows that over 62,000 families, coming to nearly 128,000 children, are currently living in temporary accommodation, with 9 per cent of these in situations where they share facilities with other people.

The former number has risen by 31 per cent in the last five years, the figures add.

On Tuesday 17 March, the government announced £3.2m in emergency funding to help rough sleepers self-isolate, which takes the form of reimbursement to local authorities who put up sleepers in accommodation.

Anybody worried about somebody sleeping rough can use the StreetLink app to alert support services, communities secretary Robert Jenrick says.

However, Shelter chief executive Polly Neate says that while “the government has acted swiftly to help renters and people sleeping rough by putting in place strong emergency measures to help safeguard these groups during the coronavirus crisis,” it must now “do the same for homeless families in shared and one-room temporary accommodation.

“Thousands of families with children are in this situation, living in cramped emergency B&Bs and hostels. It can be more difficult for them to follow NHS isolation guidance when they are sharing kitchens and bathrooms with strangers, living a single room or even sharing a bed. And we don’t know how children will cope being stuck in these conditions when schools close.

“We need to protect families already experiencing the trauma of homelessness from greater risk of coronavirus,” Neate concludes.