History of homelessness

Early history

For as long as historical records have been kept, Britain has had a homelessness problem. As far back as the 7th century, the English king Hlothaere passed laws to punish vagrants. William the Conqueror forbade anyone to leave the land where they worked. Edward the First ordered weekly searches to round up vagrants. Click here to read more

The 20th century

The successor to the workhouse was the spike (dormitory housing provided by local boroughs), which was familiar to George Orwell, who stayed in them while researching poverty in Britain. Some of the more punitive aspects of the workhouses were missing from spikes, but the standard of housing was basic. In the 1930s there were 17,000 people in spikes in the country, and 80 were found sleeping rough during a street count in London. Click here to read more

The roots of contemporary homelessness

By the 1980s around 20,000 people were living in accommodation for homeless single people in London (now provided by charities and housing associations rather than the state). Yet numbers sleeping on the streets had risen to more than 1,000. Click here to read more

The current picture

In April 2003, the Government introduced the Supporting People funding stream, which pays for accommodation-based and floating support services for homeless people and other vulnerable groups - enabling them to enjoy a better quality of life, to live more independently and to maintain their tenancies. Supporting People is a central government fund paid to local authorities, who then contract services to meet local need. However, there are limitations to the sort of services it can support, and many areas are facing cuts in order to control the overall size of the funding pot. Click here to read more