In the past year Brent Council has offered more than 100 homeless families in its care accommodation outside the borough - with some houses as far a field as Birmingham.
More families in Brent are in temporary accommodation than nearly anywhere else in the country, according to local authority figures.
And with families expected to wait up to 17 years for a council home it's unsurprising the council is taking drastic measures to tackle the housing shortage.
Large Brent families are increasingly being offered homes outside of London altogether - more than a third of properties purchased by Brent Council funded i4B Holding Ltd, set up to ease the housing crisis, are outside the borough.
Many homeless families don't want to move away from Brent when their work and often their children's education is based there.
But if they reject accommodation offers made by the council, it is discharged of its duty to house them and they will be making themselves "voluntarily homeless."
Residents rallied against "forced relocation" of "vulnerable residents" in a protest outside Brent's Civic Centre on Tuesday (May 1).
Brent Council has now revealed to getwestlondon how many homeless families were offered accommodation outside the borough from April 2017 to April 2018 and where that accommodation was based.
Out of the 108 families offered accommodation away from Brent, 82 or 75% accepted, according to the council.
Many Brent residents were offered homes miles away from London in Birmingham, Manchester and Wycombe among other places.
Where outside Brent homeless families were offered permanent housing from April 2017 to April 2018
Barnet
7 families
Birmingham
3
Dacorum
19
Dudley
2
Ealing
8
Enfield
2
Hackney
2
Harrow
10
Hertsmere
6
Hillingdon
6
Hounslow
4
Islington
1
Lambeth
2
Luton
12
Manchester
1
Sandwell
1
Slough
8
St Albans City and District
4
Watford
1
Welwyn Hatfield
2
Wycombe
7
When asked to comment on residents' claims Brent Council is "forcing" vulnerable families, including children of vital schooling age, to move out of the borough a Brent Council spokesman said: "The Council gives priority to homeless applicants with children taking GCSEs to be rehoused in Brent. But when this is not possible due to a lack of affordable accommodation, we offer homeless households the opportunity to move out of unsatisfactory bed & breakfast accommodation and into good quality, permanent accommodation within reasonable travelling distance to their priorities, be they school, college or place of work, wherever possible.
"The Council also encourages families to find their own suitable and affordable accommodation in locations which they prefer, and we assist them with deposits in order for them to do so."
"The Council is spending over 200 million pounds on private sector properties to help meet the demand for homeless households. We are also working with housing associations to increase the supply of new affordable homes in the borough and we are building new homes for housing applicants in the borough."
