80% Of Homelessness Workers At Risk Of Burnout

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Eight out of ten homelessness workers feel at risk of burnout, with the vast majority struggling to help people find housing as demand for services soars, reports Inside Housing.

An annual survey, to which more than 1,000 frontline employees contributed earlier this year, revealed that 93% of respondents found it difficult or very difficult to find suitable accommodation for people accessing services. Particular challenges were around trying to find suitable accommodation for children, people trying to move away from abusive family members and those experiencing multiple challenges, the research by charity St Martin in the Fields found. Almost half (47%) of people who contributed to the survey said their ability to prevent future homelessness had decreased, with 84% reporting an increase in demand for services.

An Inside Housing investigation recently found statutory council services are becoming harder to access in some areas as local systems came under intense pressure, with the number of households in temporary accommodation rising to more than 117,000 nationally. Two-thirds (64%) of survey respondents said their job was having a negative impact on their own well-being. The finding mirrors those of some other surveys, such as one by Homeless Link in 2022 which reported staff burnout as a concern for 78% of organisations. But amid the cost of living crisis, half (52%) of staff told the St Martins in the Fields survey that they found it hard to pay their own bills “at least some of the time”. Almost as many (44%) reported struggling to meet their housing costs.

Duncan Shrubsole, chief executive of St Martin in the Fields, said the findings “capture starkly the challenges homelessness workers are seeking to overcome and the struggles they themselves face trying to make ends meet”. Almost a quarter (23%) of those surveyed said they worried about becoming homeless themselves, with more than one in 10 (12%) having been previous users of homelessness services. Just over half (55%) of respondents worked for homelessness charities, with 71% describing themselves as dedicated frontline workers and 36% having been in the job for more than a decade.

It was the seventh time the survey has been conducted since 2017.

Mr Shrubsole said: “Tackling homelessness is everybody’s business and we also need to see concerted steps by the government and all of the new devolved administrations across the UK. Rapid action is needed to increase the supply of rented housing and specialist accommodation and to ensure it is affordable and available to those experiencing or vulnerable to homelessness.” He added there was a need for “sustained investment” nationally and locally in homelessness support services.

“Short-term contracts and squeezed budgets have a knock-on effect on pay and conditions and the ability to recruit and retain skilled staff,” Mr Shrubsole said. “It’s unacceptable that frontline staff are themselves at risk of experiencing the homelessness they work so hard to pull others out of. Good services with effective and motivated staff are key to reducing the costs and misery of homelessness.”

Four Things We Learned At Party Conferences

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The annual party conference is a curious ritual in British politics. It marks the changing of the political season and is a time for politicians and party activists to gather, debate and listen to speeches, all while enjoying the dubious hospitality of a city centre conference venue, writes Jasmine Basran for Crisis.

For campaigners like us, it’s a prime opportunity to connect with politicians and build support for ending homelessness. We spent the last few weeks at Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative Party Conferences, meeting with a range of politicians to talk to them about how they can help. With a new party in government for the first time in 14 years and half of MPs in Westminster new to their roles, we had our work cut out! But what did we learn?

1. Politicians are listening 

Across the three conferences we attended, we met with 43 MPs and 12 ministers or shadow ministers all invested in ending homelessness, including MPs with personal experience of homelessness. Some of our experts by experience spoke to MPs at Labour Party conference, and Crisis member Ray joined panel discussions alongside Angela Rayner MP, the deputy prime minister, and Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor.

Ray said: “The day I walked into Crisis I asked them to put me in front of politicians and let me share my story…We have to show strength in ourselves and use the pain, anger, raw emotions and turn that around and show them what it means to be homeless. Sharing lived experience and having a voice alongside politicians is how we can create change and achieve the solutions to end homelessness for good.”

We were encouraged to hear the Prime Minister talk about people facing homelessness in his speech, and we welcome his plan to improve social housing access for survivors of domestic abuse, care leavers, and veterans – all groups that face a higher risk of homelessness and experience barriers to leaving homelessness behind. In the long term, it’s crucial that the Government tackle the root causes and invest in social housing and support services to end all forms of homelessness. We’ll be ensuring that their promised cross-Government strategy on homelessness does just that.

2. Labour are betting the house on homes

We were pleased to hear Angela Rayner MP, the Secretary of State for Housing Communities and Local Government, re-iterate the Government’s promise to deliver the “biggest boost to social and affordable house-building in a generation” and set out how she will lead cross-Government work to end homelessness. This ambition is welcome, but it can’t come soon enough. A chronic lack of social housing is putting lives on hold, harming our health, and forcing people into homelessness.

Our recent research with Lloyds Banking group showed that nearly three quarters (73%) of people on social housing waiting lists face accommodation issues that have harmed their health. We need funding to make the delivery of social homes a reality, strong rules and targets to make sure homes for social rent aren’t sidelined in a rush to build, and ways of ensuring they go to people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

3. New faces are making waves with the Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrat conference was a celebration of their recent electoral success, and featured one of Ed Davey’s trademark stunts. This time he arrived on a jet ski! Sadly, we had to stick to trains to get to Brighton but we kicked things off with a meeting with Vikki Slade MP, the new shadow spokesperson for housing.

In their general election manifesto, the Liberal Democrats had ambitious targets on social housing and ways to end homelessness – including finally scrapping the Vagrancy Act! We can work with them to push the Government to be even bolder in their policies on homelessness.

4. Conservatives focused on leadership bids

At the Conservative Party Conference, the competition to elect a new leader brought with it giant flags bearing the faces of the four candidates, hustings, debates and a battle of the merch – think mugs, transfer tattoos, and even fake tan! As the party reflected on how they can win back voters, it was great to see fringe events on the future of social housing. And Bob Blackman, co-chair of the APPG for Ending Homelessness, repeated our call for 90,000 social homes needed per year to end homelessness.

The Conservative party are now the official opposition party, which means they challenge the Government in Parliament – all eyes on who will lead them in doing so.

So, what should we take away from this conference season? Building a future free from homelessness will take time – it requires long-term policies, investment and cross-party support. But the foundations are being laid and we’re feeling hopeful. The Government has taken positive steps and new MPs are ready to play their part in ending homelessness.

Record Number Of Homeless Families Living In Hotels 

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More than 117,000 households are living in temporary accommodation, which is the highest number since records began in 1998, reports the Independent.

A record number of families are having to live in temporary accommodation, new figures show, as councils warn their spending on emergency housing will rise by a third this year. Some 117,450 households were living in temporary accommodation, such as B&Bs and hotels, in March 2024, which is the highest number since records began in 1998. This was up 12.3 per cent on the same period last year. Of these, 74,530 were families with children – up 14.7 per cent year-on-year – and the number of children who have been living in temporary accommodation for five years or more has risen by more than 3,000.

John Glenton, executive director at the housing association Riverside, said: “Some children are now spending around a third of their entire childhood living in temporary accommodation rather than a permanent family home. This is not acceptable in one of the world’s richest nations.” Jen Clark, at Amnesty International UK, said: “The homelessness emergency is already upon us. Urgent action is needed to protect human rights as people will be facing a life-or-death situation this winter without safe and secure housing.”

The District Councils’ Network (DCN), which represents 169 councils across England, has said its members expect to spend an extra £400,000 on average this year for temporary accommodation. This accounts for an average increase of 33 per cent for each council. Figures released by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on Thursday showed homelessness increasing under every metric between April 2023 and the end of March 2024. Some 146,430 households were recorded as being threatened with homelessness, up 3.1 per cent year on year. And 178,560 households were assessed as already homeless: up 12.3 per cent.

More people are also sleeping rough for the first time this year. Some 1,013 new people were recorded sleeping on the streets on a single night in June 2024, up 21 per cent since June 2023. And 794 people who were sleeping rough in June had left an institution, such as prison or hospital: up 47 per cent since the year before. There has been a staggering 251.2 per cent increase year-on-year in the number of homeless refugees needing housing help from councils after they had been evicted from Home Office hotels. There has also been a big increase in people becoming homeless due to rent arrears from an increase in rent, with those needing urgent help from councils up 79.2 per cent year on year.

The new figures come as 23 leading homelessness charities have called on the government to protect their funding in the upcoming Budget. In an open letter to the government, charities including Shelter, Centrepoint and St Mungo’s said the Rough Sleeping Initiative, which many use to fund their services, must be continued. It is currently scheduled to end in March 2025. The charities warned cash-strapped councils can’t afford to step in if this support is taken away. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has already warned of “difficult decisions” ahead after claiming the Tories had left a £22bn black hole in the public finances.

Emma Haddad, chief executive at St Mungo’s, said: “Behind these statistics, there are people who our teams see every day. People who are worried about finding shelter for the night after months, or even years, sleeping rough. People who are worried about finding a stable home when time is running out on temporary accommodation arrangements. Without vital sources of funding like the Rough Sleeping Initiative, yet more people will experience the trauma of homelessness, and our collective aim of ending homelessness for good will be pushed even further away.” Councillor Hannah Dalton, housing spokesperson at the DCN, said: “The dramatic growth in temporary accommodation use is threatening the financial future of many district councils, leaving many forced to cut other services to balance the books.”

Rushanara Ali, minister for homelessness, said: “These numbers are more than just statistics. They show the devastating impact homelessness has on people’s lives and it is shocking that so many, including families with children, are spending years without a place to call home. We are taking action to tackle the root causes of homelessness – not just its symptoms – putting in place lasting solutions rather than quick fixes. We are reversing the worst housing crisis in living history by building 1.5 million new homes and are changing the law to abolish Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions – immediately tackling one of the leading causes of homelessness. In addition, we’ve announced a new dedicated cross-government group, tasked with creating a long-term strategy to end the disgraceful levels of homelessness.”

Emergency Winter Action For Liverpool’s Rough Sleepers

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Liverpool Council is considering reopening a homeless hub this winter as the number of rough sleepers across the city continues to increase, reports the Liverpool Echo.

During the bitterly cold weather earlier this year, the city council opened a temporary location in the city centre as part of its severe weather emergency protocol. Ahead of the temperatures dropping later in the year the authority is to again consider the emergency location that allows individuals sleeping rough to stay overnight until another solution is sourced. Officials were keen to stress in January it is not a walk-in service.

The announcement came as members of the sustainable, safe and thriving neighbourhoods committee were told rough sleeping and demand for temporary housing continues to increase across Liverpool. In August, the local authority set out how it wants to make homelessness across the city “rare, brief and non-recurring” amid the ongoing housing crisis. As part of its statutory duties, the council has to set out how it seeks to ensure people have access to housing. However the plan comes with dire warnings that financial pressures and changes to national policy continue to place strain on its services. Between 2017/18 and 2023/24, rough sleeping across Liverpool has increased by 141%. Ahead of last year’s local elections, the Labour group that runs Liverpool Council said it wanted to make the city a zero homelessness location.

Kath Wallace, head of commissioning for adult services, said the ending of tenancy agreements, families no longer willing to accommodate and domestic abuse remained the main drivers of homelessness cases. Ms Wallace told members how there was also an increased demand for temporary accommodation, despite efforts to bring numbers down. This includes hotels, which she said was “increasing significantly” and represented a “concern” for the authority given the financial pressure it creates. Increases in rough sleeping had taken place over the last year with between 28 to 35 people seen sleeping on the streets across the city centre on average each night. Ms Wallace said this was “still far too high” and the council was missing its targets to get people indoors.

Andrew Leigh, the city’s new director of housing, said his team acknowledged time spent in temporary accommodation was “not a good environment for households” and the council wanted to work with providers to help people “make a home.” Cllr Sam East, cabinet member for housing, said: “While presentation remains consistent, use of temporary accommodation is increasing, what that really captures is that we don’t find out about homelessness in the city as early as we’d like to.” Cllr East said he wanted the strategy to help the authority support families “before the worst happens” at which point it is “catastrophic.” On the night hub, Ms Wallace said this was being considered again for later in the year given it had proved “very successful” in January.

Increased access has also been made to bed and breakfast accommodation but the department did not know how far the funding from government would go which was hampering initial work.

Rough Sleepers To Be Moved On

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Tents used by rough sleepers are being removed from a town centre amid fears of anti-social behaviour, reports the BBC.

Action has been taken to remove tents in Blackpool due to a “zero tolerance” approach to people setting up homeless encampments like those seen in parts of London and the United States.

A meeting of the full council was told that when homeless people were informed that they had to leave they were also offered advice and the chance to engage with services to find them proper accommodation.

Councillor Michele Scott, who was attacked last year in Gynn Gardens, along with her husband, warned if nothing was done the town was at risk of becoming “like ‘California” where tent cities have been set up by homeless people. She said the issue was personal to her and her husband, councillor Danny Scott, after the couple were attacked by a man in December last year.

She said council officers were “acting very quickly and removing the problem”.

Tent dwellers have been seen in parts of the town centre including in Stanley Park and on land on East Park Drive.

The latest official count in Blackpool found a record number of rough sleepers with 21 found, based on a snapshot of a single night in autumn last year. The figure was up from seven the year before and was the highest number since comparable records began in 2010.

Councillor Paula Burdess said in her report that the council now had a “robust procedure” in place to ensure the issue was controlled. She said: “This includes street cleansing staff challenging people in tents from 6am and issuing a first warning to move, followed by later visits in the day to ensure that this happens.”

Calls For Addiction To Be Treated As A Mental Health Issue

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Probation expert says homelessness and addiction are almost like ‘manifestations of mental health difficulties’, reports the Irish Times.

Susan* first started taking pills when she was 15 years old. She didn’t know then what they were, she says; she describes herself as a runaway child hanging around with older people who were “taking yellows”. “I was smoking weed and hash since I was about 11. I started smoking heroin about 17 and was strung out by 19. I was pregnant when I was 20, started dabbling again when I had the baby,” she says. After moving to England, she was “locked up for tapping bank cards and fraud”. She was sentenced to four months in prison and was “off the gear”. Soon after she returned to Ireland, living in Dublin and she was in the depths of addiction again. “I went back into town and started sleeping at Siptu on the quays … started smoking gear again so I was strung out again,” she says.

As a consequence of her addiction, she ended up in prison again, this time in Mountjoy. She is now pregnant with another child, and in a new relationship that she describes as healthy and supportive. Though living in a homeless hub, she feels as though her life has changed, having joined Saol, a support group that helps women with substance use disorders in Dublin’s north inner city, connecting with probation services. “I’m off them all now – for me, for my fellah, for my children.” There is a distinct trend among women in the criminal justice system, according to those who work in the sector. Many have experienced violence, whether it be by their parents or former partners; many have experienced addiction; and many are from socially deprived backgrounds.

Saoirse Brady, chief executive of the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT), says though this is not applicable for every woman in the criminal justice system, many “have been a victim of crime themselves in some way, usually domestic abuse, sexual abuse, some sort of violence, maybe psychological abuse”. “I have spoken to women themselves who have talked about that, and they are often self-medicating. Maybe they have a mental health issue, a substance misuse issue, but they often have a mental health or trauma issue they haven’t really dealt with,” she says. “When you think about women going into prison, very often they are mothers. This is a whole other piece. For women who have been separated from their children … they are dealing with a myriad of things, you know the past trauma they have experienced.”

The most recent annual reports, 2022, from both the Irish Prison Service (IPS) and the probation service showed there were more women in the criminal justice net overall. Ms Brady says this is a “global trend”. However, many of these women are facing custodial sentences for lesser offences and are serving short sentences. According to the IPS annual report, women made up just under 11 per cent (509) of the sentenced committals to prison that year. Of those, 190 of the women’s committals were for theft and related offences. The majority were sentenced to short periods in prison. Representative organisations have raised concerns about this, pointing to research finding that spending time in jail or prison increases a person’s risk of engaging in crime in the future.

The overcrowding in Irish prisons should be reason to reduce the reliance on custodial sentences, Brady says. Last Thursday 122 per cent of bed capacity was used in the Dóchas women’s prison at Mountjoy, while 141 per cent was used in the women’s prison in Limerick. “We need to stop sending people to prison for very short periods of time and instead invest in some of those other pieces like probation, community service or diversion programmes,” she says.

Niamh O’Carroll, a probation officer on the Dublin homeless team, says that in her line of work she has witnessed homelessness and addiction “almost being the manifestations of mental health difficulties”. “The pathways into crime are different for each woman. Personality disorder is really prevalent as well as childhood trauma,” she says. “There are also a huge amount of environmental factors. If you are homeless, it is hard to maintain that healthy mentality. They commit poverty-related crimes, homeless-related crimes, criminal charges from non-management of mental illness. They are typically low risk of harm, but high risk of reoffending. I’m not trying to excuse this behaviour, but perhaps there needs to be a shift in perspective as to why these people with mental health difficulties act the way they do,” she adds.

Research in recent years has revealed high rates of dual diagnosis among prison populations, with those with adverse childhood experiences being at increased risk. Dr Sharon Lambert, senior lecturer of applied psychology in University College Cork (UCC), says it is important to view substance use disorder as a mental health issue, particularly when it comes to those involved in the criminal justice system. The use of drugs and alcohol can impair judgment, Lambert says, increasing your likelihood of engaging in criminal acts. “If you have an addiction, you cannot access mental health services. There was always this view that mental health was something that came after addiction, and addiction caused mental health,” she says. “But actually, increasingly, the studies are showing that mental health comes first, and that addiction is a response or symptom of other mental health-related issues.”

This is how Hannah* comes to explain her path to becoming a person with a substance misuse disorder. The 48-year-old mother of three had a child when she was 17 with a man who was abusive towards her, and who was involved with criminal activity. “I was a pure innocent girl from Ballyfermot. I was really innocent. I used to love going to school. I met a guy when I was 15,” she says, shrugging her shoulders as if that was the most defining moment in her life. She and her then partner used drugs, and moved to England due to charges against him. “He used to hit me. I took eight hidings off him and the last time he hit me he pushed my daughter out of the way and that was it,” she says of her decision to end the relationship.

She returned to Ireland and tried to stay off drugs. But when her brother died, she relapsed. “I was full on ecstasy and I ended up hitting the girl beside me. I didn’t mean it if you know what I mean. It was just the way I reacted,” she says. “Leaving that aside, I was getting bad because of all the bad news I was getting. I ended up back on the stuff.” She began shoplifting, resulting in a series of criminal charges against her, including for a street robbery. The women who engage with community rehabilitation programmes feel empowered in their ability to rehabilitate and recover from crime and drugs. The women who attend the Saol centre say the cycle can be broken. They refer to each other as their Saol Sisters.

Jenny* believes she has done that. Aged 14, she woke up to find her mother was dead in the bed beside her. Though she had family, she says she essentially raised herself and ended up down the “wrong path”. Now aged 29, she says she is “doing brilliant”. She has two sons, a 10 year old and a two year old, and is expecting a third, a girl. “I buried a little girl in 2012. I got my own council accommodation. I’m there just over a year. I’m quite happy,” she says. “I used to suffer very badly with my mental health. I used to self-harm. I joined here about a year now. If I didn’t come to Saol, I would probably be six foot under.”

*Names have been changed to protect the identities of the interviewees

Homelessness At Record Levels In Sefton

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A recent report showed councils in England have spent £1bn on temporary accommodation for homeless families in the past year, reports the Liverpool Echo.

Homelessness related support has reached record levels in one part of Merseyside as local authorities across the country report huge cost increases associated with managing the demand. A recent report by the BBC calculated that councils in England had spent £1bn on homelessness provision in the last year – a 50% rise on the year before.

At an Overview and Scrutiny meeting at Southport Town Hall on Tuesday September 17, Sefton Council heard a number of cabinet member reports including analysis of housing and homelessness in the borough. Reports by Cllr Daren Veidman and Cllr Liz Dowd detailed some of the drivers of the homelessness problem include a shortage of temporary accommodation and increases in Section 21 evictions.

Although the council acknowledged a lot of the reasons for homelessness are out of the control of the local authority, the borough are committed to making every effort to alleviate the harm it causes and have invested in preventive measure. These include the availability of advice and guidance support to residents served with ‘no fault’ section 21 eviction notices as well as exploring the possibility of creating new temporary accommodation facilities.

Sefton’s Housing Options team have reallocated a member of staff to work through all prevention cases that have received statutory notice to support and advise them accordingly. Two hundred and three priority need households are currently in temporary accommodation in Sefton, the highest number ever managed by Housing Options.

An update on Housing Options provided by the council said demand remains ‘consistently high’. In terms of leveraging partnerships to provide increased stock allocation the local authority said Housing Options received 140 properties from various Registered Providers (RPs) to match to homeless households in temporary accommodation.

During the council meeting, the cabinet member for Highways, Housing, Planning and Building Control, Cllr Veidman also confirmed the awarding of a contract to Riverside Housing to provide intensive support for families in the first 12 months of their tenancy. The provision will also extend to existing tenants in social housing who are at risk of homelessness.

Homelessness can manifest in a number of ways but one of the most damaging forms is rough sleeping. Each year each local authority is obliged to advise the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) as to the extent of rough sleeping in the borough. The estimate is based on a single, typical night between 1 October and 30 November and councils within the Liverpool City Region (LCR) usually co-ordinate counts on the same night.

As these are undertaken on one night it can only demonstrate a snapshot of the extent of rough sleeping which can vary on a daily basis. This year, local authorities within the LCR have agreed the count will take place from midnight on Tuesday November 12 into the early hours of Wednesday November 13 and will be conducted by the Rough Sleeper Outreach team.

Over the last decade, the numbers of rough sleepers counted in Sefton via these checks are: 2014 (11), 2015 (4), 2016 (4), 2017 (9), 2018 (11), 2019 (2), 2020 (3), 2021 (0), 2022 (0), 2023 (3).

Landlords Face Tougher Eviction Rules

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A property expert warns of “bad news for landlords” as Labour reforms could see tenants who don’t pay rent stay for three months, reports property118.com.

Paul Shamplina from Landlord Action said that under the Renters’ Rights Bill, tenants can miss up to three months of rent before a landlord can start the process of reclaiming their home. At the moment, landlords can only start eviction processes if a tenant has missed rent payments for two consecutive months. Under the Labour government’s new rental reforms, tenants will now get four weeks’ notice before they have to move out, instead of the current two weeks’ notice for rent arrears.

Paul Shamplina, of law firm Landlord Action, says many landlords will rush to serve Section 21 notices. He said: “With the abolition of Section 21 now certain and timeframes clearer, landlords and tenants should prepare for the impact. In the next six months, many landlords will rush to serve Section 21 notices before the ban takes effect. While I support improvements to property conditions, my main concern is the broken court system. Good landlords will benefit from clearer regulations, but promises of robust eviction grounds mean little if the courts remain overwhelmed.”

Mr Shamplina adds that under the Renters’ Rights Bill landlords could be facing tougher eviction rules. He said: “This is bad news for landlords. A common scenario we see is tenants trying to bring rent arrears just below the mandatory threshold before action can be taken. It has become a common tactic used by savvy tenants. So now, under the latest changes, anything less than three months will be a discretionary ground – meaning it is up to the discretion of the judge.”

The government has advised landlords that they can use this discretionary ground if rent payments are consistently late. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government told the Telegraph the changes would “allow tenants more time to repay arrears and remain in their homes while ensuring landlords do not face unsustainable costs”.

Mr Shamplina also warns about the crumbling court system, noting the long wait for possession. He said: “We already have cases where landlords are owed two years of rent but can’t reclaim their properties, with one of our cases dragging on for 19 months without a hearing date yet. Landlords aren’t banks, and many rely on rent to cover mortgages or fund retirement. Nearly a fifth of properties for sale are from landlords leaving the market, forcing tenants to find homes in an already tight market. Without landlords, the private rental sector (PRS) collapses. As more landlords exit, rents will rise, and housing will become scarcer, ultimately harming tenants. Protecting tenants is crucial, but without fixing the court system, the entire rental market faces chaos.”

The government has confirmed that a Section 21 ban will be implemented when the Bill becomes law, regardless of whether the court backlog has been cleared. This leaves Section 8, which currently allows landlords to apply for a hearing to recover lost rent, but will soon be used for all types of evictions.

Early Release? “I’d Rather Be Back Behind Bars”

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A prisoner released early has told how he’s living in a tent under a bridge over the M4 motorway, reports the Manchester Evening News.

“I would rather reoffend and go back to prison than be homeless,” said Warren Rees, 39. “When I was behind bars, it’s scary. There’s violence happening, and it’s hard. But out here you are all on your own. You’re worried in case someone does something to your tent, but in prison the door’s locked. Job’s done.”

Warren is one of the 1,700 prisoners released early this month after mounting pressure on UK prisons. He was freed from Bridgend Parc Prison in Wales. Underneath the bridge, which has cars running over it, there is little protection from the wind, which gusts through beneath. Warren has positioned his tent on some stone, because the grass in the area becomes too damp. He is also located just next to a river, which he occasionally bathes in. Describing what it is like to sleep there, he said: “Sometimes you can’t sleep at all and you’re just living day by day.”

Warren has been given jail sentences twice in the last year. First, he pleaded guilty at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court to possession of an offensive weapon and was sentenced to 18 months in prison on September 25, 2023. A few months later, he was at Cardiff Crown Court, where he pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm with intent and was given a sentence of 30 months. He served time first in HMP Cardiff and then Parc Prison, Bridgend, and would still be inside were it not for the early release programme.

Before spending time in prison, he was living in council housing, which he lost his tenancy for when he went back into prison this year. When he was released, he spent his first night under the bridge with no sleeping bag, tent or blankets. He is now relying on the support of local charities, but he is still wearing the same clothes he left prison in. He said: “It’s hard, to be honest. It’s better in prison. No worries. Until it’s time to come back out. It’s not a life. I’d rather be in a house living a full life and you toss and turn at night.”

Warren is far from the only prisoner to find themselves on the streets after being released. In the year from April 2023 to March 2024, 12.3 per cent of released prisoners had nowhere to go and became homeless on release, according to the Offender Accommodation Outcomes – Statistical Summary. And the issue is part of a wider problem, with one study showing 60 per cent of prisoners said that having a place to live would stop them reoffending, according to the Prison Reform Trust.

Warren lost connection with friends and family after being sentenced, and says he is doing his best to stay out of trouble and move on with his life. “My parents died when I was younger. I went down the wrong route and after that had relationship breakdowns with my siblings when I was making mistakes”, he said. “I have a daughter who I can’t see, and I get that. But I always wanted to get know her. She changed my world. I own up to it all. My auntie also lives in Bridgend and she is happy to let me have a shower at her house and wash my clothes but she’s also sick, and I don’t want to be a burden to her.”

Warren is currently supported by charities, including the Wallich, which has a branch in Bridgend, and BARC Community Outreach Centre. He goes to BARC every morning to receive meals, and says the charity has been “a life saver.” “I like to keep out of the way. I don’t want any trouble”, Warren explained. He has avoided sleeping on the streets themselves and has chosen to base himself under a bridge in the M4 for the time being, until he can find permanent accommodation and a place to settle.

Warren hides his tent and bedding in a location away from where he is sleeping, so it doesn’t get stolen, and notes he needs more bedding to protect him from the cold, but would struggle to carry anything else around and keep it safe. Looking ahead, he believes he is now ready to live a stable life after years of struggling, and says he regrets the things he did when he was younger. “I have grown up now and I am not that person any more. I do want a second chance. I would snap someone’s hand off if they wanted me to work for them. I can do all sorts and am good with construction and all that. I used to think I was unstoppable, but I got on the wrong side of the road. I have done all my bad behaviour and it’s time to grow up now and act my age. I want a life.”

Ffion Evans, who works at BARC, Bridgend said: “We are having a large number of clients coming in now and a lot of them are being released from prison early and it is quite sad because a lot of them are being released with no housing so we are seeing a large number of homeless people coming in. We obviously do a drop in service where they’re coming in for breakfast and lunch and what we’re noticing as well is that it does seem to be affecting their mental health, too, because they’ve got nowhere to go. Some people are saying that it would be easier to go back into prison. They’ve got food and a roof over their head in there, whereas they’re getting released and they’re coming back onto the streets. We see the impact straight away.”

Thomas Holick, the Policy and Public Affairs Coordinator at the Wallich, believes that the impact of prisoners being released early is going to be widely felt in Wales. He said: “We are facing a homelessness crisis in Wales at the moment, with huge numbers of people not having anywhere to live and accessing emergency or temporary accommodation through local authorities. He said: “This is a larger issue, but our main concern is that people being released from prison early will be more likely to face the same issue. We’ve known for a long time that people leaving prison without somewhere to live is a major driver of homelessness.

“It’s fairly common especially if they have lost their home when they go into prison or had a relationship breakdown with family members and it requires a lot of different agencies working together including the prison’s probation first and foremost, but also the police, local authorities, the housing department and organisations like us try and pull together to make sure that people released do have somewhere to go but obviously there’s huge, huge demands in the system. All too often people do fall through the cracks, unfortunately. The lack of stable accommodation is also the number one driver of re-offending as well I would say, which is not what we want to see.”

Prescription Drug ‘Ravaging’ City’s Homeless

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The misuse of a prescription drug widely used to treat anxiety, nerve pain and epilepsy has been linked with a sharp increase in deaths and prompted a government review into how it is controlled, reports the BBC.

Illicitly obtained pregabalin pills – typically costing just £1 each – have overtaken Spice as the “drug of choice” within Manchester’s homeless population, the BBC has been told. We spent the day listening to just some of those affected. Ricky leads us through the heavily graffitied back streets of Manchester to the place where his mate Diego died. The pain etched on Ricky’s face when he shows me the doorway in which Diego spent his final moments two days before Christmas in 2022 is still incredibly raw. An inquest found Ladislav Kavur, to use 33-year-old Diego’s real name, had taken a lethal cocktail of drugs.

Ricky, who says he has spent the last 10 years on the streets, has the names of friends he has lost inked into his chest. He is in no doubt Diego had taken pregabalin, a drug that was prescribed more than nine million times across England last year. “Pregabs are killing people,” he tells me, his voice cracking.

“They’re taking it with heroin but it’s too powerful – I know loads of people who’ve died. Gone to sleep and not woken up.” Pregabalin is a Class C drug, meaning it is illegal to either possess it without a valid prescription or supply it to others. While it is regarded as a safe and effective drug when used as directed, according to the NHS website it can be addictive for some users.

Professor Ian Hamilton, an expert on addiction at the University of York, has another warning about pregabalin. “Not only can it be fatal in terms of overdose,” he says, “but also people tend to use it with other drugs including heroin and alcohol.” The Office for National Statistics confirms more than 90% of people who die from pregabalin poisoning have other substances in their system. And the picture across England and Wales seems to be worsening.

In the five years to 2023, pregabalin was cited on 1,625 death certificates – nearly four times the number recorded in the previous five years.

Not far away, I meet another of Diego’s friends. Stick thin, with hollow eyes and arms striped with scars, Lindsay reaches into her pocket and takes out a blister pack of pills. “This what you’re talking about? Pregabs? They’re bad, man. Diego had them. He fell asleep in my arms one night because he liked to hug. In the morning I looked down and he was blue.” While still haunted by the horrors of that night, Lindsay says she is herself hooked on pregabalin. Another of Lindsay and Ricky’s friends to die was Sarah McDonagh. “She was at the bus stop, took a load of pregabs on top of methadone to help with her withdrawals and choked on her own vomit,” Ricky recalls. While the 31-year-old’s official cause of death on 1 April was recorded as methadone toxicity, the coroner at her inquest acknowledged the possibility of other drugs being present.

Months earlier, 48-year-old Lee Greensmith died two days after Christmas after taking pregabalin in a Wigan hotel used as a homeless shelter. Michael Linnell, who runs Greater Manchester’s Drug Information System and advises nationally on new and emerging trends, says “pregabalin is a very dangerous drug, particularly when it’s used with heroin because it enhances the effect and reduces tolerance, making overdose more likely”. The Home Office’s review will examine whether measures designed to tackle its misuse are sufficient.

Back on the streets of Manchester, Ricky tells me pregabalin pills are “a pound a go” and offers to “go and get you some now if you want?” He says most of the people he knows get theirs from “street dealers” who have sourced them online. We found scores of dealers, including on the encrypted Telegram messaging app and the dark web. One UK seller promises a first-class postal service, describing in great detail the efforts he makes “to avoid detection”. Much has been written in recent years about another drug that has hit homeless communities hard – the synthetic cannabinoid Spice. Ricky says he would “rather take this than pregabs – it’s the pregabs that’s killing people.” From 2018 to 2023, New Psychoactive Substances such as Spice were involved in 887 fatal poisonings in England and Wales. During that same period pregabalin was named in 1,625.

Slumped in a bus stop near the trendy Northern Quarter, we find a mother and son. Both are homeless, both are desperate for help. Deano says his mum Maz, lying motionless under a sleeping bag, ended up on the streets and turning to drugs after a violent home life. He says he is with her because she’s “not well at all”. “She gets methadone,” explains Deano. “But if she can’t get methadone she takes pregabalin pills just to stop withdrawals. It stops her from being ill – as in rattling – but then it makes her worse off. She’s had a few this morning. Just street ones. You get them anywhere.”

Manchester City Council says it will monitor pregabalin use among homeless people and points to “extensive help” that is available. “There are limitations to what we can do,” a spokesperson tells me, however. “We cannot force vulnerable people with complex needs to accept help or stop taking harmful substances, although we can provide advice on minimizing risk.” The local authority says it will continue to help police target drug dealers preying on some of society’s most vulnerable members.

Finally, I meet Adele, wrapped up in a blanket and leaning against a Market Street shop window. Manchester’s homeless community has been ravaged by the effects of pregabalin misuse, she says. Echoing Ricky’s words, she adds: “I know loads who’ve died. People have grown up with each other on the street and it’s so sad to see. There just needs to be a lot more help for people with addiction. But no-one really seems to care and that’s the problem. Especially those on the streets.”