Types of homelessness: From rough sleeping to sofa surfing

When we think of homelessness, a lot of people envision someone forced to sleep on the streets. And that’s a real crisis in this country – nearly 4,000 people were recorded sleeping rough in England on a single night last Autumn, which is thought to be an underestimate. But there are several different types of homelessness, each with its own challenges. 

The UK is in the depths of a housing crisis. Between the supply of available homes falling far short of what the population needs, rent and house prices which have surged despite flatlining wages, and an eye-watering cost of living leaving little room in household budgets, an increasing number of people are being plunged into homelessness.

As well as rough sleeping, people might be referred to as experiencing hidden homelessness, statutory homelessness, or sofa surfing. Some are left living in temporary accommodation long-term, without the means to secure and settle into a home. Each of these types of homelessness is seriously detrimental, even if some might be less visible to the public eye. 

The Labour government pledged to build 1.5 million homes over five years through mandatory targets and planning reforms in an attempt to tackle the housing crisis, but experts warned it wouldn’t be enough as long as there’s a reliance on private sector companies to get the job done.

Rough sleeping

Rough sleeping means that someone is living on the streets with nowhere else to go. It’s the most visible type of homelessness, with people forced to sleep in unsafe places – on park benches, in doorways, even in tents pitched in urban areas. 

Rough sleepers face serious risks, ranging from diving temperatures during winter or the threat of violence. Someone living on the streets is as much as 17 times more likely to have been a victim of crime. Their wellbeing suffers quickly as it’s hard to stay clean, warm or healthy when you’re sleeping outside. It’s also very isolating, cutting people off from their communities and making it much more difficult for them to access support services. People in this situation are more likely to experience mental health problems and struggle with addiction, making it a particularly difficult place to get out of without help. 

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Figures compiled by the London-only Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN), recorded over a number of months, are thought to be more accurate than the government’s single night snapshot numbers. Nearly 12,000 people were seen sleeping rough in London between April 2023 and March 2024 – a 58% increase compared to ten years ago.

Rough sleeping is often the last resort for people who have exhausted other housing options. They might have been driven into hardship after the breakdown of a relationship or a job loss, or could be struggling to break out of a cycle of substance issues – the journey to homelessness looks different for everyone. People seeking asylum are at particularly high risk of having to sleep rough – government data showered a nearly 1,000% increase in people living on the streets after leaving asylum accommodation in England between July and December last year. People in the asylum system have no recourse to public funds, which means they can’t claim most state benefits and housing options.

Rough sleepers form only a small fraction of the overall homeless population. 

Sofa surfing

Sofa surfing tends to mean someone is staying temporarily with friends, family or acquaintances because they don’t have a stable home of their own. A person forced to sofa surf isn’t living on the streets but they’re still without a permanent, secure place to live. 

They might be staying with a different person every few nights or living in overcrowded conditions with family members who can’t really afford to house them. This instability can make it difficult to hold down a job, access the benefits they’re entitled to or address the root causes of their homelessness to start rebuilding their lives. Sofa surfers are often in precarious situations and are at risk of becoming rough sleepers if they can’t find more permanent housing.

Sofa surfing is especially common among young people who may have had to leave their family homes after falling out with their parents or because they’ve experienced abuse. People in this situation often live with the constant fear of being asked to leave with little notice. And without a stable address, it’s hard to apply for jobs, benefits or more secure housing, entrenching poverty further.

This is in part because it’s difficult to claim support if you don’t have a fixed address, and sofa surfers often fall through the cracks of the system. They don’t have a formal rental agreement either, which means even if they’re claiming universal credit, they can’t ask for it to be increased to cover rent payments.

Sofa surfing in itself isn’t illegal, but it can lead to legal problems, particularly if the person staying does so without the landlord’s permission. A tenant who lets someone else stay in their home in a way that violates their tenancy agreement could be evicted by their landlord via a section 8 notice, leaving both people without somewhere to live. 

Among different types of homelessness, the term sofa surfing isn’t necessarily a favourite of housing experts – it obscures the difficult reality of the situation to some degree, and can be confused with travel trend couchsurfing.

Hidden homelessness

Hidden homelessness is one of the most underreported types of homelessness, making it particularly difficult to gather statistics on.

People in this situation are homeless but not known to authorities. This can include people staying with friends or family (sofa surfing), those living in overcrowded or substandard homes and people who might be squatting in abandoned buildings. Because these individuals aren’t rough sleeping or using shelters run by homelessness organisations, they’re unlikely to show up in official statistics. This makes it harder to quantify, and then address, these experiences of homelessness.

Hidden homelessness disproportionately affects women, particularly those fleeing domestic violence, ethnic minority groups, and young people who might be estranged from their families.

It can be especially damaging because it often lasts for a long time. While someone might temporarily avoid the risks associated with rough sleeping, the long-term instability of other types of homelessness can take a heavy toll on mental health, finances and connection to community or services. A lot of people don’t seek help because they either don’t know where to go or don’t consider themselves homeless since they’re not on the streets.

Statutory homelessness

In the UK, if someone qualifies as ‘statutorily homeless’, it means the local council has a legal duty to help them find housing. Unlike the other types of homelessness, it’s a definition focused on what interaction (if any) you’ve had with authorities. To meet the criteria for statutory homelessness a person must be what’s known as unintentionally homeless (meaning they didn’t lose their home through their own doing), have a priority need (like being pregnant, having children or being vulnerable due to health problems), and have a connection to the area.

If someone qualifies for help, the council is responsible for providing temporary accommodation and working with them to find a long-term home. 

But not everyone who is homeless qualifies for statutory help. Single adults without children often don’t meet the ‘priority need’ criteria, even if they’re living in unsafe or unstable conditions. This often leaves people without the help they desperately need, forcing them into other forms of homelessness like sofa surfing or rough sleeping.

Living in temporary accommodation

Temporary accommodation is where statutory homelessness comes in – it’s housing provided by councils to people who qualify as homeless under the law. It can mean people live in homeless hostels, B&Bs or privately rented properties arranged by the local authority. 

This is meant to be a short-term fix while people wait for more secure homes, but even when people do qualify for statutory homelessness support, councils are cash-strapped and under a lot of pressure due to the shortage of social housing in the UK. This means people often end up in temporary accommodation for longer than intended – sometimes months or even years – while they wait for a more permanent home to become available.

Living in temporary accommodation isn’t ideal. It can be overcrowded, especially in shared housing situations, and families are often moved around without much notice. Some temporary accommodation set-ups are better than others, but for many people it’s a stressful experience and damaging to wellbeing.

Some people might be placed in self-contained flats while others might have to share facilities with other families. Overcrowding and a lack of privacy are common issues, especially in densely-populated cities where demand for housing is high.

The longer someone stays in temporary accommodation, the harder it becomes to rebuild their life and transition out of homelessness for good.

And even once placed in temporary accommodation, a person’s other needs could go unmet.

An investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman concluded this month showed that Tower Hamlets council left a mother with health problems and her two children in “degrading and appalling” circumstances after they presented as homeless.

The woman told the council that one of her children, who has mobility and mental health issues, was only just back in education after three years out of school. The family had experienced domestic abuse, leaving one of the children with complex post-traumatic stress disorder.

After eventually being moved to a B&B, the mother reported to the council that her eldest child was anxious about using the mixed-sex shared facilities and had nowhere to do their homework, but the council said there were no other options.

The mother then told the local authority that her child was experiencing incontinence because they were so anxious about using the shared bathrooms.

They were later moved to an overcrowded one-bedroom flat which had “inadequate heating and hot water”, forcing the family to use a jug and bucket to wash. They couldn’t share a bedroom because of the ages and genders of the children and because of the family’s health issues, meaning the mother had to sleep on the kitchen floor while her children slept in the bedroom and the living room respectively.

It took another year and a half – until June this year – for the council to move them to suitable housing.

“I can find no evidence the council considered the massive impact placing a vulnerable family with a history of PTSD from domestic abuse in mixed-sex shared accommodation would have,” said ombudsman Amerdeep Somal.

“The distress the child must have felt – at their age – of suffering incontinence because of their fear of using the shared bathrooms is palpable given the degrading and appalling circumstances they were in.

“The council must improve the way it assesses risk and suitability of accommodation as a matter of urgency to prevent other vulnerable people being placed in such awful situations.”

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