The street homelessness crisis in London must be treated as an "emergency", frontline charities have warned. Image: Nick Richards / Flickr
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The number of people sleeping rough on London’s streets has surged to a record high, official statistics show, just days after Sadiq Khan warned the situation on the streets will “get worse before it gets better”.
The mayor of London made the warning at an emergency homelessness summit in the English capital earlier this week before the latest damning Combined Homelessness and Information Network (Chain) report on Thursday (31 October).
The stats showed 4,780 rough sleepers were counted by frontline workers on the streets between July and September this year, up 18% on the same period last year, 13% higher than the previous quarter and the highest quarterly figure on record.
There was a 12% increase in the number of rough sleepers new to the streets with the 2,343 people counted making up almost half of the total people rough sleeping.
Meanwhile, 681 were deemed to be living on the streets long-term – 42% higher than at the same point in 2023 and 9% higher than the previous quarter in April and June.
There has also been a 41% increase in the number of young people aged between 18 and 25 sleeping rough compared to the same period last year. Alexia Murphy, CEO of Depaul UK, called the surge “truly shocking”.
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Glass Door Homelessness Charity, who operate emergency shelters opening across London on Monday (4 November), told the Big Issue the charity is braced for a busy winter.
There were more than 1,500 applications for shelter spaces last winter – an 80% increase compared to the previous year that saw the waiting list for men seeking emergency shelter was closed three times due to the level of demand.
Jo Carter, chief executive of Glass Door Homeless Charity, said: “These latest, appalling numbers do not come out of nowhere. We have been raising the alarm for years, warning that spiralling rents, a lack of social housing and a flawed benefits system are driving huge numbers of people into homelessness.
“The only question I am left with is this: how much worse do things have to get before decisive action is taken?”
Khan has vowed to end rough sleeping in the capital by 2030 – and City Hall is due to publish a roadmap to set out how that goal will be achieved – but his tone at Tuesday’s summit underlined the long road ahead.
Khan announced a new ‘Homes off the Streets’ initiative promising 3,500 long-term homes for ex-rough sleepers from a £4.8m investment.
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A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: “No one should have to sleep rough on our streets and it’s shameful that numbers are rising across the country and in London.
“The Mayor is doing everything in his power to help as many Londoners off the streets and into more secure accommodation, which is why he’s delivered record funding to homelessness charities in the capital and quadrupled City Hall’s rough sleeping budget since 2016, supporting over 17,600 people off the streets to-date.
“However, the scale of the challenge and the legacy of years of underinvestment from the previous government in housing and support means things will get worse this winter before they get better.
“Sadiq remains committed to ending rough sleeping in the capital by 2030. This week, he announced £4.8m funding to expand existing rough sleeping services in the capital and convened an emergency summit at City Hall with the minister for homelessness and rough sleeping, boroughs, and leaders from London’s homelessness sector to establish a plan to achieve this – helping to build a better, fairer London for everyone.”
John Glenton, executive director of Riverside Care and Support, said lessons from the last Labour government’s efforts to end rough sleeping.
“As we head towards the cold winter months it’s extremely worrying to see the number of people sleeping rough on the streets of our capital reach an all-time high,” said Glenton.
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“We’re heartened by mayor Sadiq Khan’s pledge to end rough sleeping in the capital by 2030. The time for action to start delivering on this pledge is now.
“There is much to learn from the first Blair administration which cut the number of sleeping rough nationally across England by two-thirds from 1,850 in 1998 to 532 people by 2001.
“We urgently need ministers across government departments to work with the mayor to adopt an invest to save mentality and work together to solve this growing humanitarian crisis in the capital.”
It’s not only on the streets where homelessness is soaring in London – the number of families living in temporary accommodation in London has surged in the last year.
The government allocated £230m to tackling homelessness and rough sleeping across the country in Wednesday’s autumn budget.
Speaking at the summit earlier in the week, rough sleeping minister Rushanara Ali said she knew that frontline homelessness charities needed “funding certainty” and the budget would provide it.
“Spend your money wisely, speak to people in the sector, speak to people with lived experience,” she said. “If they put more money upfront in the areas that lead up to [homelessness], you can end homelessness.”
Westminster government ministers have promised a long-term strategy to tackle rough sleeping and homelessness but it has yet to be revealed.
Crisis’s Matt Downie said: “The UK government should consult as soon as possible on its promised strategy for ending all forms of homelessness and demonstrate the political will that can fix this awful, broken system.”
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Emma Haddad, chief executive of St Mungo’s, said the latest London rough sleeping figures should “incense us all” but increased government funding can help.
“We know that funding must be sustainable, long term and part of a much broader solution that prevents people becoming homeless in the first place,” said Haddad. “Only then will we – national, local and civil society partners – be able to say confidently that everyone has somewhere safe and warm to live.”
The government also announced a £500m investment in building social homes and the Renters’ Rights Bill is also set to come into force to offer renters more security.
But Glass Door’s Carter said “far more is needed”.
“Immediately, the government should peg local housing allowance rates to at least the 30th percentile of rents in a given area, abolish the shared accommodation rate (which pushes young people into homelessness) and scrap the benefit cap,” said Carter.
“To make the greatest impact over the longer term, more investment in expanding the social housing supply is absolutely vital. We will continue to advocate for policies like these at the same time as providing shelter and support to those facing homelessness right now.”
