Rise in prison leaver homelessness should be a clear warning to the new government

It’s never been easy to find accommodation for people coming out of prison. There is a chronic lack of affordable, decent housing across the country and with 1.2 million households in England on waiting lists for a social home, competition is fierce.

For prison leavers, there are even more barriers. There are challenges getting supported and social housing, due to not having a local connection or being deemed intentionally homeless by a local authority. For many, the private rented sector often becomes the only option but a lack of references or deposit can be a challenge, as well as landlord concerns about renting to people coming out of prison. And for people who require support, if there is no support available, going straight into the private rented sector can be difficult.

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The data backs this up, last month Ministry of Justice data showed there has been a 31% rise in people coming out of prison homeless in the past year, mainly into rough sleeping. The MOJ has recognised this issue over recent years and invested in the CAS3 scheme to provide transitional accommodation to those at risk of homelessness on release from prison. This has been important but we can see from the numbers that there is still much further to go, for those immediately on release and after CAS3 accommodation.

Its likely that the increased numbers of people coming out of prison homeless is in part due to the early release scheme in place since January 2024. It’s hard to know the full impact the scheme had as the data wasn’t released at the time. But we heard from our services that too often people were released under the scheme with very little notice, meaning they couldn’t find housing, or the housing they had lined up wasn’t available early.

The rise in prison leaver homelessness should be a clear warning to the new government. With less than five weeks to go until people start being released under the emergency measures, the government risk swapping their prisons crisis with a homelessness crisis. These measures will see around an extra 5,500 people coming out of prison between September and October.

Leaving prison without anywhere to live is setting people up to fail, its almost impossible to work, access healthcare, maintain a substance misuse programme and generally get your life back on track. Being homeless increases the chances of reoffending by 50%. Even if you don’t commit more crime, the simple fact of being homeless can result in recall to prison as it can lead to breaching your licence conditions.

With the overcrowding crisis in prisons, the government had to take urgent action, and last month announced they would be letting people out after 40% of their sentence rather than 50% to free up space. No government makes decisions like these lightly but unless they also act to reduce homelessness it risks being in vain if people are released early into homeless and then reoffend or are recalled.

We saw in Covid what was possible with the right focus and resources. With the Everyone In scheme, rough sleeping was almost ended overnight as the government opened up different accommodation options. It is possible to house people coming out of prison and give them the right support, but it will require an extraordinary effort.

There needs to be more funding and resources but there must also be a collective effort across the country.

That means government working closely with local authorities, devolved administrations, housing providers, landlords and charities to think creatively about solutions. This requires an immediate focus and emergency solutions but we also need to move quickly on the longer-term, and ensure there is more social housing, more supported housing, opening up planning permission and building more homes.

There are steps local authorities can also take to remove barriers to housing prison leavers. People leaving prison can be deemed to have intentionally made themselves homeless because of the crime they committed. This means that local authorities are not required to give them any further help with their housing on release. Additionally, the need for a local connection to an area can cause problems for someone leaving prison who needs to be housed in a different location. This needs to change.

Having a criminal record can be a barrier to private renting. But we know that with the right support and safeguarding in place, there is no reason why people who leave prison can’t be reliable and safe tenants. There is much more we could do to encourage more landlords to house people with criminal records.

The government’s emergency measures offer a chance for a reset for the prison system, a chance to give it breathing space and take it out of crisis. They must be given the opportunity to work. Having a fully functioning justice system is vital for victims, and society as a whole. We all need to play our part in this.

Campbell Robb is chief executive of Nacro.

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