Homelessness statistics

Every year we survey our clients to produce an overview of their backgrounds, issues and needs.

We do this to help us identify trends, such as rising or decreasing levels of substance use or mental health problems and to compare how these change over time. More importantly, this helps us to plan and tailor our services directly to our client group.

Some results from our 2010 survey are shown below:

• 76% of clients were male
• 24% of clients were female
• 39% of clients were from BME communities
• 64% of clients had issues with substance use (drugs and/or alcohol)
• 64% had a physical health condition (medical condition, vision or hearing impaired and/or required regular medication)
• 70% of clients had mental health issues (diagnosed, suspected, depression and/or self harming)
• 54% of clients had educational needs (learning disabilities, difficulty reading, difficulty with numeracy, managing money and paying bills)
• 8% had been in care
• 48% of clients were ex-offenders or had been in prison

National statistics

• See the Government's Communities and Local Government statistics
• Information from Homeless Link, the umbrella organisation for homelessness agencies

London statistics

• See figures from CHAIN, the Combined Homeless and Information Network

Trends and predictions for 2011

• St Mungo's is deeply concerned about the worrying trend of rough sleeping numbers rising.
• Read a briefing paper about Homelessness trends and predictions prepared by Shelter, Crisis, Homeless Link and St Mungo's (December 2010).