Rough sleeping numbers climb for the second year running, as quarterly figures show over 78,460 households are facing homelessness
Nationally, the homelessness crisis is deepening. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has today released the latest statistics on homelessness and rough sleeping, revealing increasingly concerning trends. The rough sleeping snapshot – counting the number of people rough sleeping on a given night in Autumn 2023 – has risen by 27%, a rise for the second year running. This comes after a sustained reduction since the numbers peaked in 2017.
The latest quarterly figures on statutory homelessness paint a similarly bleak picture. The numbers of households in temporary accommodation has continued to grow with a staggering 109,000 households in temporary accommodation at the end of September 2023, including more than 142,490 children.
With councils reportedly buckling under the financial pressure of maintaining spiralling levels of temporary accommodation, the system is stretched to breaking point. Even with so many households placed in temporary accommodation, a further 87,510 approached their local council for support. 42,690 of those were found to be already homeless while 35,760 were found to be at imminent risk on homelessness in the next 8 weeks.
In Greater Manchester, the numbers are no less concerning. The annual rough sleeping snapshot count increased to 149 people, despite falls in Trafford, Manchester and Oldham. At the same time, temporary accommodation numbers have risen each quarter over the last 12 months for all boroughs of the city region in which data are available. The number of households at risk of imminent homelessness or already homeless, across Greater Manchester, sits at 6,046.
Despite sustained investment at the regional and local level into the pioneering emergency response scheme for rough sleeping – A Bed Every Night, and wider provision to support people at risk of and experiencing homelessness, current accommodation provision is struggling to meet either existing demand in Greater Manchester or the pressures of increasing incoming claims from people seeking asylum.
The record high figures released today come the same week as the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities announcement of an additional £220 million of Government funding to help prevent homelessness and provide accommodation and support for people experiencing street homelessness. Though extremely welcome, this investment needs to go further. As reports also circulate of a new consultation to water down the long-awaited renters reform bill, it is difficult not to question the viability of the government’s manifesto commitment to end rough sleeping in this parliament, or significantly move the dial on homelessness more generally.
The trends in homelessness and rough sleeping figures point to urgent and necessary policy shifts if we are to end the need for rough sleeping and ensure homelessness is only ever rare, brief and non-recurrent. Urgent investment in truly affordable housing, addressing policy failings that lead to avoidable hardship and homelessness, and an immediate and sustained shift to prevention must be at the forefront of any national response to the latest figures, and reflected in the forthcoming spring budget.
“These numbers are no surprise to anyone working to end homelessness, but they should serve as an compelling wake-up call to all with the power to look meaningfully at existing policies that are making people homeless needlessly. The scale and level of commitment in Greater Manchester to end homelessness, get people back on their feet and deliver true preventative work to stop homelessness before it becomes a reality offers an incredible blueprint for national responses. But these efforts are too often overlooked.
In Greater Manchester, we applaud and celebrate those on the front line of the city-region’s response and preventative work continuing to deliver innovative, pioneering and effective solutions that can lead to real change.
Any additional funding to support that work is always going to be welcome, but this has to sit alongside more urgent and fundamental changes needed in housing and welfare provision, and an end to the avoidable homelessness created within current asylum processes.”
Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity are a founding funder and continued supporter of the pioneering A Bed Every Night scheme, and also distribute grants across the city-region to support anything from the temporary accommodation sector to enabling preventative work to help stop homelessness before it becomes a reality. It is because of the generosity and support of the business community and people of Greater Manchester means we can be a lifeline to those people and organisations on the frontline.
Consider donating today to continue the leading response to homelessness and rough sleeping in Greater Manchester.