New statistics lead to a call for strategic revision of the broken housing system as only way to achieve the goal of ending rough sleeping.
Today, the Government has released both its annual snapshot of rough sleeping figures and statutory quarterly homelessness statistics (July – September 2023)
The snapshot shows that on a single night in autumn 2023 there were 3,898 people seen sleeping rough in England.
That is an increase of 27% on the previous year’s total of 3,069 – with the number of people sleeping rough increasing in every region compared to the previous year.
The rough sleeping figures also show:
- The largest increase in the number of people estimated to be sleeping rough was in London, where there were 1,132 people this year compared to 858 people last year – a 32% increase on the previous year.
- In terms of nationality, the largest percentage increase was for those people outside of the EU.
- There were 336 people from outside the EU and UK estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night in 2023 compared to 179 people in 2022, which is an increase of 157 people or 88%. The overall proportion has increased from 6% in 2023 to 9% in 2023.
The statutory homelessness figures from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities show:
- 78,460 households were homeless or at risk of it. An increase of 5.5% from the same period last year. (8.7% increase in homelessness and 1.8% in threatened with homelessness)
- The private rented sector is increasingly unstable. Nearly 16,890 (47.2%) of the households at risk of homelessness were in the private rented sector. A 4.1% increase on the same period last year.
Emma Haddad, CEO of St Mungo’s, said: “We should all be deeply worried at yet more record highs in the numbers of rough sleepers.
At St Mungo’s we know that behind each number is a person in crisis. Everyday our charity helps people facing challenges that would be in many of our worst nightmares. We are doing everything we can to help but are almost thwarted at each turn by the lack of social and supported housing, a huge shortage in affordable rental properties and a growing number of people sleeping on the streets. The system is buckling under the strain.”
“St Mungo’s frontline teams are facing extreme pressure to help rising numbers of people in desperate need. The Government’s own ambition to end rough sleeping by 2024 has been undermined by a string of policy decisions that are not about prevention but more a quick fix. We need a new political approach that takes a strategic view across the whole housing system and beyond, preventing people from falling into homelessness in the first place.”
