Sheridan Smith looks at ‘Britain’s evicted Children’ for Dispatches

Narrated by Sheridan Smith, recently the star of Channel 5’s The Teacher (pictured), the programme brings the stories of youth homelessness to the fore.

Bella, aged seven, and her two younger sisters, Nylah and Macie, are being evicted from their two-bed flat in Birmingham – the only home they have ever known.

Soon to be homeless, mum Clarissa and partner Theo have no choice but to turn to their local council for help. Over the course of the next six months, Dispatches follows Bella and her family as they move and move again – spending week after week cooped up in a hotel room. With record-high rents and no social housing available, they face an uphill battle to find a new place to call home.

Their situation is not unique: in the first three months of this year, more than 25,000 families with children became homeless in England or were at imminent risk of becoming so.

Through Bella’s story, and using exclusive research from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and housing charity Shelter, Dispatches lifts the lid on the reality of life for thousands of families across the country at risk of eviction, while revealing the impact that losing a home has on the youngest members of our society.

Dispatches, tonight at 7.30pm on Channel 4