Devastating rough sleeping must end here says Homeless Link
27 Feb 2025 02:02 PM
Homeless Link responds to the rough sleeping snapshot (2024) and the statutory homelessness statistics (Jul-Sep 2024)
On 27 February, the Government published its annual Rough sleeping snapshot in England: autumn 2024, which provides information about the estimated number of people sleeping rough on a single night between 1 October and 30 November.
Also published were the Statutory homelessness in England: July to September 2024 statistics.
Key findings are:
- 4,667 people were estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2024. This is an increase of 770 people or 20% on the 2023 rough sleeping snapshot estimate total (3,897).
- This figure is only 84 below the peak of 2017 (4,751) and is well over double (164%) the number of people estimated to have been sleeping rough in 2010 when records began.
- It has leapt up by 90% since Covid measures in 2020-1 brought the numbers down and now exceeds the 2019 pre-pandemic level.
- Every region except Cumbria recorded an increase, with the largest rises in Yorkshire and Humber (43%), the North East (39%) and the East Midlands (37%).
- London recorded the largest number of people estimated to be sleeping rough at 1,318 or 28% of the national total, followed by the South East at 795 or 17% of the total.
- The latest statutory homelessness statistics show that 81,370 households were at immediate risk or already homeless, and owed a homelessness duty by their local authority. A slight increase (0.2%) on the same period last year but a 4% decrease on the previous quarter.
- 126,040 households were living in temporary accommodation at the end of September 2024, a record high, and a 16% increase on the same period the previous year. This includes 164,040 children, a 15% increase on the same period the previous year.
Responding to the statistics, Rick Henderson, CEO of Homeless Link, the national membership body for frontline homelessness charities in England, said:
“It is beyond devastating and shameful that our society has allowed thousands upon thousands of people to face the trauma of sleeping rough across this country. In recent memory we almost halved rough sleeping (from its 2017 peak). We know what works and yet once again the situation is getting worse every year. More and more lives are being irreparably damaged, failed by the systems that meant to support them.
“We can see the causes of homelessness wherever we look. A welfare system unfit for purpose, an acute shortage of truly affordable housing, extremely over-stretched homelessness, health and social care services and a disconnect between government policies – from hospitals and prisons discharging people onto the streets to people leaving the asylum system with nowhere to live.
“This must end here. The Labour Government must do what its predecessor failed to – to put the right funding and support in place to prevent and end homelessness for good.
“Homeless Link is calling for a wholesale review and reset of homelessness funding that can enable support to be turned on its head. We desperately need a more efficient and effective funding approach that can drive a system rooted in preventing people’s homelessness and provide support to make sure that everyone has a home and the help they need to keep it.”