The number of people sleeping rough in London has hit a 15-year high, as levels across the country have surged.
Last year, 4,667 people were estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night, which is a 20% increase from 2023, including more than 1,300 in the capital.
The rate of individuals sleeping rough in England increased to 8.1% per 100,000 people in 2024, rising from 6.8% in the previous year, as per Gov.uk.
Rough sleeping involves sleeping outside or in places not designed for people to live in, such as cars, doorways, and abandoned buildings.
A spokesperson for SPEAR, a homeless charity helping people in south west London, explained how rough sleeping isn’t the only form of homelessness.
They said: “While rough sleeping is the most visible form of homelessness, many individuals are ‘hidden homeless,’ staying in temporary accommodations, hostels or sofa-surfing.”
The causes of rough sleeping involve several interrelated, but not definitive factors.
Sean Palmer, Executive Director at homeless charity St Mungo’s, said: “The reasons that lead people to sleep on the streets are often complex and every person represented in the devastating statistics has their own story.
“Unaffordability in the private rented sector, and a chronic undersupply of social rented housing and supported housing, has played a significant part in making more people homeless and prevented their homelessness from ending sooner.”
Palmer explained that the lack of join-up between systems can leave people exiting hospitals, custody, and asylum accommodations without a home.
Often individuals forced onto the streets struggle with their physical and mental health and don’t receive the necessary support, while others have fallen into a poverty trap, compounded by rising living costs and unaffordable rents.
While homelessness and the number of people sleeping rough are increasing at an alarming rate across the whole of England, the upward trajectory is particularly startling in London.
The rise of rough sleeping in London
The graph below shows the estimated number of people sleeping rough on a single night in autumn in London and the rest of England from 2010 to 2024.
Rough sleeping has more than tripled in London since 2010, compared to a 150% rise in the rest of England.
The number of people sleeping rough on a single night hit a record high 1,318 in the capital last year, while the 3,349 sleeping rough in the rest of the country in 2024 didn’t surpass levels from 2017 or 2018.
The total number of individuals sleeping rough in London across a whole year has nearly tripled since 2011, soaring from 3,975 to 11,993 in 2024.
Mark Taylor, Director of Operations at SPEAR said: “It is well established that a shortage of affordable housing and increases in rent and mortgage payments contribute to increases in homelessness, and we saw homelessness figures hit record highs in London last year.”
London has unique challenges, including higher housing costs, greater population density, and more acute housing shortages.
Kristian Draper, Director of Services at London-based homeless charity Thames Reach noted that it would be overly reductive to ascribe the rise in rough sleeping to these factors alone.
He said: “There is a smaller, less immediately grabbing but, for us, more worrying number behind the headline figure.
“Most of the people who are recorded as having been seen on the streets last year will have only spend one night out but the number of people who are living on the streets is also rising.
“We think this makes it particularly important that all the services working with rough sleepers here are working to resolve it, not to make it more comfortable, running the risk of incentivising street homelessness.”
Mairi MacRae, Director of Campaigns, Policy and Communications for housing and homeless charity Shelter said: “A freezing doorway or a flimsy tent are no substitute for a safe and secure home.
“No one should have to face the terrifying threat of rough sleeping, but a dire shortage of genuinely affordable social homes has left too many people in London and across the country with no other choice.”
While London’s population has increased by almost 1.8m in the last 15 years, the rate of rough sleeping is climbing at a much faster rate.
The graph below depicts the number of people sleeping rough relative to the population in London.
Londoners are roughly two and a half times more likely to be sleeping rough today than in 2011.
In 2011, one in 2,056 Londoners was sleeping rough and by 2024, this worsened to one in 813 – a sharp increase not simply accounted for by a population increase.
A brief dip occurred in 2022, likely due to pandemic-related interventions such as the ‘Everyone In’ initiative getting people off the streets.
However, the number of people sleeping rough outgrew the population rise again in the following two years, hitting record heights last year, suggesting that the steady rise was simply postponed, not solved.
What can be done to reduce rough sleeping?
In October, Labour’s Budget announced that local authorities in England would receive an extra £233m in the 2025-26 financial year to prevent homelessness.
Palmer claimed that the scale of the response to homelessness needs to reflect the scale of the crisis, recognising the complexity of the issues involved.
He said: “The Government’s new Homelessness Strategy is a real opportunity to bring together work across a number of key players to really make a difference.
“We need to both ensure that there are services in place to support the growing number of people who are rough sleeping and support them into suitable, affordable homes at the same time as increasing our focus on upstream interventions to stop more people falling into homelessness.”
He argues that while these measures are not without cost, we have a responsibility to do all we can to support the thousands experiencing homelessness, including those on the brink.
Matthew Falk, Director of Services at Glass Door Homeless Charity, shares a similar sentiment.
Falk said: “Supporting people to avoid homelessness or to make their way back to stable housing is not just the morally right and humane thing to do – it also has a number of economic benefits.
“It saves money for local authorities (particularly in regards to temporary accommodation), for the NHS, and for the criminal justice system. Ensuring that everyone has a safe and secure place to call home is an investment that will be better for us all.”
Sadiq Khan announced a £10m funding package – the largest ever single investment – for London’s rough sleeping services in January to address street homelessness.
The London Mayor also promised to “end rough sleeping for good by 2030 in partnership with the Labour government”.
This injection of funding will create an expanded network of ‘Ending Homeless Hubs,’ which are safe places for people who are sleeping rough for the first time to be assessed by professional teams.
However, the mayor warned rough sleeping would likely “get worse before it gets better” and his critics argue the housing crisis has worsened under his leadership, evidenced by his Affordable Housing Programme almost completely stalling.
The data and trends paint a stark picture: homelessness, particularly rough sleeping, is rising at an alarming rate in both London and the rest of England.
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