Back then, £26 million a year seemed an incredibly high figure – but it still wasn’t enough to prevent people living in squalor.
But less than two years later, the bill has ballooned by more than £20 million – to £47.8 million. It has never cost so much to house our most vulnerable or needy citizens.
The total cost for the past three years is £107 million.
In recent weeks, I’ve spoken to people across Kent, all of whom are either currently in temporary accommodation or have been in recent times.
Amy Louise, a domestic abuse survivor, was transported across the county with her children, then aged five and one.
When arriving in Swanscombe, she was greeted with fleas, slugs, carpets covered in wee and mouldy bathrooms.
“I’m not even joking, it was disgusting,” said Amy.
“My daughter was five at the time. We had flea bites all up our legs – it was really bad.
“When I walked into that house, it looked like we’d just been put into an abandoned house, just left to rot away.
“And they’re using these places as temporary accommodation for people, especially with kids.
“The fact that people are still going into these places is wrong. I don’t really understand how.”
It is perhaps no surprise to learn she does not feel councils are getting the best deals possible.
Unfortunately, horror stories are very common – and can put people off temporary accommodation for good.
“If you try and turn it down, they’ll say, ‘Well, that’s your problem then, you’re making yourself homeless, you’re putting yourself at risk,’” Amy added.
“I don’t think that’s fair, because the place isn’t right to be even living in.
“I think if someone offered me temporary accommodation ever again, I’d turn it down, because I’d be scared to go into something like that again.”
With an annual bill of almost £50 million – and likely to continue skyrocketing – it would appear the thousands of people in need are getting a worse deal than ever before.
And nobody can quite seem to understand how so much taxpayer cash is being spent.
In Dover, Andy Styles has been in temporary accommodation since January.
Mr Styles was made homeless last year after suffering from a mental breakdown, and when he left hospital he was moved into a house in multiple occupation (HMO) in Folkestone Road.
But settling in has been tough for the 66-year-old, who says there is often no hot water for the property’s 12 residents, as well as no working oven or fridges.
“They put people there, they say they’re helping, and they’re not. It’s making it worse for us, especially with someone like me with mental health problems,” he said.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy I’ve got a roof over my head and I’m not on the street.
“But it would be nice to have just a little bit of essential care, just so that we can survive properly and comfortably without the struggle and frustrations.
“It’s disgusting, the smells from the drains, the dark, dingy basement – nothing’s maintained.
“If the council’s paying a lot of money, they’re definitely not getting their money’s worth because we’re not.”
After being alerted to Mr Styles’ situation, Dover District Council said it would arrange for one of its officers to contact him and “to discuss any unresolved concerns and ensure that any appropriate follow-up action is taken”.
They added: “We continue to work hard to listen to and help those needing housing support, including providing temporary accommodation where necessary, and we take appropriate action where issues with housing standards are identified.”
Responses to Freedom of Information (FoI) requests from KentOnline reveal every council in the county has seen a rise in its spending on temporary accommodation, with large sums going to private landlords.
Medway tops the list with more than £9 million forked out on 893 placements in the 2024/25 tax year. Over the past three years, the total is £18,652,150.
By comparison, Tunbridge and Wells District Council spent £756,128 on 152 placements in 24/25. Its total for the past three years is £2,449,807.
But despite the huge disparity between the two, both have seen substantial increases compared to previous years.
Rounding out the top three spenders are Dartford, with a yearly bill of £7,547,191, and Thanet, spending £6,082,264.
While Kent’s local authorities are forking out vast sums, the tenants we spoke to all felt that money was not being spent well.
We asked our followers on social media to tell us about their experiences of temporary accommodation and were flooded with responses, with many describing it as a “nightmare”.
One woman who was placed in Maidstone, despite her family being in Folkestone, said: “Me and my partner were in temporary accommodation when my daughter was three months old and were moved three times within eight months and then placed in a one-bed private-rented flat.
“It was and has been the worst experience of my life.”
Another said: “I was put in temporary housing with a newborn, with the promise of moving within 6 months…. to be stuck there for over 10 years.
“I had to move us to stop my daughter growing up on the worst road with continuous crimes.”
Medway Council’s housing chief, Louwella Prenter, admitted the authority’s spending has “rocketed” but spoke confidently of its ability to take action which would benefit everyone in the future.
“I would hope the quality getting worse is not the case, but there’s always going to be instances where if people are saying it, they’re obviously experiencing that,” she told KentOnline.
“I think more and more people are requiring the support of temporary accommodation through various cost-of-living issues we’ve had in the past.
“We are living with a cost-of-living crisis, and that is putting more and more people out of their homes and in need of help.”
When I last analysed temporary accommodation two years ago, Swale Borough Council’s Angela Harrison accepted that some “private landlords have got the upper hand because there are more properties needed than are available”.
While Cllr Prenter wasn’t as willing to admit to such a scenario, she acknowledged there is a risk of unscrupulous property owners swooping in to undermine the hard work put in by council staff.
“There’s always a risk, but I would hope that landlords in Medway know that we’re expecting them to be good landlords,” said the Labour councillor.
“We don’t want them to have skyrocketing rents. I don’t want anyone, as I said, to live in substandard accommodation.
“We want the best for Medway residents, and that is everybody’s job, not just the council.
“But private landlords can charge what they want; that is the nature of their business, isn’t it?”
But Cllr David Mote, Dartford’s portfolio holder for housing, disagreed with the idea of landlords having more power than councils.
“I don’t think landlords hold all the cards. We use trusted providers and work with them to ensure that the properties are in a good condition,” he said in response to questions sent to the borough council’s press office.
“If the properties are not up to standard, the council will end the rental and find an alternative as soon as is possibly practical.
“While we must aim to minimise its use, the demand for social housing severely outweighs the supply, so we are forced to rely on temporary accommodation to meet our statutory and moral duty to house homeless families who come to us in need of accommodation.”
Cllr Mote says there is an ever-increasing demand for social housing, while the supply is “very limited”.
In the year to June 30, 2025, Dartford’s housing team processed 3,859 applications to join the housing register and 1,584 homeless applications.
“It’s little wonder that spending has increased when put against a backdrop of rising costs and fewer properties available for either temporary or permanent accommodation,” Cllr Mote added.
Thanet’s cabinet member for housing, Helen Whitehead, initially agreed to be interviewed by KentOnline, before changing her mind.
She later told us in a statement through the council’s press office that in the last year, the number of residents in out-of-area temporary accommodation had more than halved.
Meanwhile, the total number of Thanet households in TA has reduced by 62, despite the number of approaches from people facing homelessness increasing by 31% over the same time period.
Clllr Whitehead added: “This has only been possible due to the extraordinary hard work of our housing staff, and our strategic focus on bringing residents back home to Thanet and increasing our council stock to provide permanent, genuinely affordable homes for the people that need them.
“Almost half of the 170 properties we pledged to purchase for in-house temporary accommodation have already completed or are in the pipeline.
“As our in-house temporary accommodation produces a financial surplus from the first year, this strategy not only supports residents to stay in the area, in high-quality accommodation, but also saves a huge amount of money.
“This can be used to provide further services for residents.
“I could not be more proud of the staff who continue to work so hard, and am incredibly pleased to have already brought half of our out-of-area households home, to be with their loved ones and support systems.”
Nationwide, the number of households in temporary accommodation has climbed to a new record high.
Some 131,140 households in England were in temporary accommodation – a form of homelessness – at the end of March, according to data published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG).
This is up from 117,350 a year earlier and is more than double the total a decade ago in March 2015, when it stood at 64,710.
The number of children in temporary accommodation stood at 169,050 in March, up year on year from 151,540 and also the highest since records began in 1998.
Mairi MacRae, director of campaigns and policy at the housing charity Shelter, said: “There’s only one way to ensure everyone has access to a safe and secure home in the long run, and that’s social rent homes.”
