Yes, when I lived in London, the social housing lists were 15+ years long.
We were working but claiming top up benefits as rents were so high.
The amount the LA will pay for rent is laughable. Where we were, if you needed a three bed house, the full HB amount was 1,200 a month. There was no where that was 3 bedroom that was under 1,700 a month (it’s more like 2k a month now, I hope the LA has upped it in line with that, but I doubt it).
People don’t understand that. They insist that people claiming benefits are either all in social housing or they are getting all their rent covered, which isn’t the case. You have to pay that shortfall yourself.
And it’s not the case of “well, you’ll have to rent a one bedroom place and all squeeze in then!” because even if you find a landlord who is willing to rent to you on benefits (even top up ones when you are working full time, it was a nightmare), no one will rent a one bedroom flat to a family.
And homelessness doesn’t mean you will get social housing either. How many thousands of families are living in one travelogde room for years at a time? A friend of mine, her husband and dd are entering their second year in one. And yes, they work. They just can’t find anyone who will private rent to them while they need benefits to top up the rent costs.
(And “just move where you can afford to live them!” - ha! Yeah, that’s what we did. It’s not always the easy or good option for many reasons and the only reason we could move hundreds of miles away to a cheap place was that dh London job went fully remote. Not everyone has that luxury. Cheap places are usually cheap because of deprivation and no jobs, so moving to one and leaving your job in a more expensive place makes no sense).
Sorry, I’ll get off my soapbox now, but it’s something that really winds me up.