St Mungo’s Submission to the Spending Review – September 2020

24th September 2020

Before the pandemic spiralling housing costs, increasing insecurity for private renters and cuts to homelessness services had seen rough sleeping more than double in ten years.

Official counts and estimates of the number of people sleeping rough on a single night in England show the number has risen by 141% since 2010, when the methodology was first used, from 1,768 to 4,266 people. This number has started to decrease since the Government’s 2018 Rough Sleeping Strategy was adopted, which is promising. In 2019, the total number sleeping rough on a single night was down 10% compared to the 2017 peak of 4,751 people.1 Although reports from the CHAIN database of rough sleeping in London show an upward trend in the capital since 2017/18.

This submission focuses on the solutions to homelessness and, in particular, the further steps the Government can take as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) to end rough sleeping by 2024 in line with its 2019 election manifesto commitment.

Before the pandemic spiralling housing costs, increasing insecurity for private renters and cuts to homelessness services had seen rough sleeping more than double in ten years.

St Mungo’s Submission to the Spending Review – September 2020

Before the pandemic spiralling housing costs, increasing insecurity for private renters and cuts to homelessness services had seen rough sleeping more than double in ten years.

Before the pandemic spiralling housing costs, increasing insecurity for private renters and cuts to homelessness services had seen rough sleeping more than double in ten years.

Other publications

Life Changing Care

Keeping us safer: An approach for supporting homeless women experiencing multiple disadvantage

Housing and health: Working together to respond to rough sleeping during Covid-19

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