In 2024, 1,611 individuals died homeless within the UK, in line with the Museum of Homelessness. Its annual report on homeless deaths reveals the variety of individuals dying homeless on this nation has been rising ever since numbers began being collected in 2017. The main points of the deaths of 8,523 have been recorded since then.
A part of that is simply because variety of homeless individuals is rising. It’s a grim arithmetic, however with a rising homeless inhabitants there’ll statistically be extra deaths of homeless individuals, with out some motion to reverse both or each of these traits. Once we suppose “homeless” we usually defer to somebody sleeping tough, successfully a “roofless” particular person. Whereas that is on the excessive finish of homelessness, there are lots of extra people who find themselves principally in hostel lodging, exempt lodging, short-term lodging, sofa-surfing or awaiting eviction.
Tough sleeping numbers elevated 20 per cent from 2023 to 2024. In July of 2025 there have been 131,140 households in short-term lodging, together with 169,000 youngsters, a 12 per cent improve from the yr earlier than. Alongside this development there was little aid for public companies, significantly these targeted on homeless individuals. “Individuals are simply far more marginalised now than they had been even just a few years in the past,” stated Matt Turtle, co-founder of the Museum of Homelessness. He pointed to the continued strain on native authorities, along with excessive charges of evictions and the influence of a wave of artificial opioids and psychoactive medication in elements of the UK.
“Once we say homeless, we simply take into consideration the dearth of a home. We don’t actually as a society actually perceive the complexity, and so coverage displays the favored dialog and due to this fact dismisses this group of individuals over and over,” stated Gill Taylor, strategic lead of the Dying Homeless Mission.
Two of the main dangers resulting in dying are being discharged from jail and overdose, in line with Taylor’s work. The Jail and Probation Ombudsman is required to research the deaths of people that have died inside 14 days of discharge from jail. It investigated 137 deaths between 6 September 2021 and 31 December 2023 and located 20 individuals had died from a drug-related overdose inside someday of launch and one other 63 inside the first two weeks. When the Ombudsman analysed 105 of the deaths in additional element, it discovered a 3rd had been launched from jail straight into homelessness. “I believe that form of intersection between well being medication and felony justice is simply not attended to in coverage. And for the people who find themselves essentially the most weak, that could be a life threatening state of affairs,” Taylor stated.
Amongst younger homeless individuals, poor psychological well being resulting in suicide is a number one reason behind dying. “Most of the suicides that we’ve reported are in very younger people who find themselves actually struggling on the sharp finish of social isolation, not accessing the well being care that they want, discovering themselves on the streets or in hostels which are, fairly frankly, disgusting locations to remain,” stated Taylor. Proof reveals that being homeless as a teen will increase the danger for that particular person of battling training, well being, employment and homelessness as an grownup. What’s branded a “short-term” state of affairs can have lifelong impacts.
It can be deadly. Two of the 1,611 deaths this yr had been infants dying homeless on account of cot dying. “Environmental components are at play in cot deaths. When you can’t management the temperature or the place your baby sleeps, or whether or not you’re sleeping in the identical mattress as one another, all of these items improve that threat,” Taylor stated.
So how can the federal government get the variety of homeless deaths down?
There are legislative strikes occurring, however very slowly. The Renters’ Rights Act means a ban on no-fault evictions coming into pressure within the following yr (however there is no such thing as a clear date on this). No-fault evictions have lengthy been the main reason behind homelessness, so this can have an effect – it’s simply taken six years to occur because the then PM Theresa Might introduced it.
The Supported Housing Regulatory Oversight Act was meant to supply a licensing framework and correct oversight for social landlords when it was handed two years in the past. Nonetheless, the steering is simply simply being consulted on and it’ll possible be one other yr earlier than something occurs.
The Scottish authorities has moved quicker and reformed its coverage on “precedence want” in homelessness, which suggests persons are being housed far faster than earlier than. “It’s not Housing First, nevertheless it’s nearly like a housing first strategy to short-term and emergency lodging,” defined Turtle.
Scotland has additionally allowed the UK’s first secure consumption room in Glasgow, the place individuals who use medication can accomplish that whereas supervised by well being and social care professions. This solely opened at first of 2025, however anecdotally the service seems to achieve success in stopping overdose deaths. “We’ve simply seen a way more concerted effort round hurt discount in Glasgow and Edinburgh significantly targeted in these cities, and you’ve got seen declines [in homeless deaths] in these cities,” stated Turtle.
People who find themselves homeless wrestle to entry healthcare and are sometimes among the many most difficult to deal with, in line with Taylor. Anecdotally, she says, these homeless people who find themselves recognized with most cancers usually tend to be already at stage 4, for instance. The “inclusion well being” strategy of designing specialist companies to satisfy the wants of marginalised teams starting from homeless individuals to carers to veterans is, she believes, being eroded by pressures on NHS budgets. It isn’t talked about as soon as within the new NHS Ten 12 months Plan, which focuses extra on neighbourhoods.
At an area degree, there are issues native authorities can do to mitigate the dangers, though the massive levers of energy are within the fingers of central authorities. A recurring theme of Safeguarding Grownup Critiques into the deaths of homeless individuals is the dearth of communication and coordination between companies at an area degree. Native authorities may also work higher with prisons and the NHS to ship the help individuals want instantly following discharge from jail. Turtle factors to efforts in Southampton and Exeter, each areas with a excessive variety of homeless deaths, to raised combine and coordinate their response and enhance prevention, though these are nonetheless at an early stage.
The federal government has additionally introduced a bundle of £84m to deal with homelessness, with £70m of that earmarked for tough sleeping. Whereas welcome, and introduced with self-congratulatory bombast, it’s nonetheless a restricted intervention and no substitute for the long-term funding reduce from native companies below austerity. The growing strain to scale back the proportion of social housing, significantly in London, can also be regarding. A toddler’s expertise of poverty and homelessness raises their threat of turning into homeless as an grownup. Labour must be taking a look at these 169,000 youngsters and desirous about methods to get them right into a safe and first rate residence as quickly as attainable, or we could have extra deaths within the years to come back.
[Further reading: Labour’s new common ground]