World Homeless Day: research reveals state of the homelessness sector in England

As World Homeless Day brings the homelessness in our communities into the spotlight, Homeless Link’s head of policy, Sophie Boobis, outlines the findings of the latest ‘Review of Support for Single Homeless People in England’, which shows supply shrinking amidst rising demand.

World Homeless Day gives us a chance to draw attention to the incredibly distressing levels of homelessness in this country, as well as to highlight the excellent work already taking place to support people experiencing homelessness and to examine the gaps where further solutions are needed.

The current picture is bleak. For the past 15 years, Homeless Link, the national membership body for frontline homelessness services, has produced an annual review of the available support for single people facing homelessness in England to help service providers, commissioners, policy makers and local authorities understand and respond to need. We focus on single people (i.e. people without dependents), as they are less likely to be to be entitled to housing from their local authority, and often rely on homelessness charities for accommodation, advice and other support.

The recently published 2022 report, which draws on data sources including a survey of accommodation providers and day centres and data from our nationwide service directory, finds that homelessness is rising and people are presenting with increasingly complex support needs, as the number of services and the funding available have declined.

The headline findings for 2022 document 911 accommodation projects, providing 33,093 bedspaces, and 173 day centre services. While there has been a slight increase in accommodation providers since last year, in the last 10 years the sector has shrunk by 33 per cent, at the same time as homelessness has increased. The pressure this is placing on providers is clear; 68 per cent of accommodation services stated they have had to reject a referral because their project was full, and 96 per cent of day centres reported barriers in supporting people into accommodation.

Added to this, almost a quarter (24 per cent) of accommodation providers had seen a decrease in funding since 2021, with a further 56 per cent reporting no change in funding. Given the high inflation over this period, this indicates that most services experienced significant real terms funding cuts.

Supporting recent research from the CIH, Shelter, Crisis and beyond, Homeless Link’s 2022 report highlights the impact that the lack of affordable housing is having on the homelessness system. Providers reported that 40 per cent of people currently accommodated were waiting to move on into independent accommodation but were prevented from doing so due to systemic barriers. Over half of these people have been waiting for at least six months. A lack of social housing and lack of private rented sector accommodation available at LHA rates were identified as the primary drivers.

The research also sets out how changing trends in funding sources have transformed the sector over the last decade. With the ending of the once-dominant, ring-fenced ‘Supporting People’ programme in 2010 (and despite government investment since 2018) accommodation providers have become increasingly reliant on the welfare benefit system to fund their accommodation and support services.

In 2017, for the first time, supported accommodation providers generated most of their income through housing benefit rather than being primarily funded through local authority commissioning and grants. This has resulted in more and more supported accommodation registering as exempt providers, making it vital that the homelessness sector contributes to the shaping of the upcoming regulation and licensing scheme being introduced through the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act.

Finally, it is worth noting that, since 2020, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of providers supporting people experiencing a wide variety of support needs, including increases of 200 per cent for physical health, 143 per cent for substance misuse, 93 per cent for mental health and 110 per cent for people with co-occurring or complex needs. It is concerning therefore, that only nine per cent of accommodation providers state they are suited to supporting people with a high or complex needs, yet the majority face barriers to accessing other services.

We urgently need to better understand why people experiencing homelessness are presenting with increasing levels of additional support needs. We know that many of these are causes of homelessness, and it follows that sufficient investment directed to the right issues could ensure we prevent people from becoming homelessness in the first place.

We also know that many of these needs are exacerbated by the experiences of being homeless, and while the growing prevalence of trauma informed care across the homelessness sector is very welcome, we should not be reliant on housing providers to provide complex mental health support. Homelessness is a public health issue as much as it is a housing one and we need a commitment from national government to ensure homelessness considerations are embedded across health and social care policy.

This World Homeless Day, Homeless Link’s annual review shines a light on a homelessness sector under pressure from the rising cost of living, reduced or stagnant funding, ongoing systemic barriers and rising demand for their services. However, this should not detract from the outstanding and innovative work taking place across the country and the examples of local areas working to reverse the alarming national trends.

It is by understanding the full picture and looking more closely at successful practice that we will be able to identify the ways of working needed to ensure a sustainable sector capable of providing effective support for people experiencing homelessness.

Read the full report here