For people experiencing homelessness, accessing substance use treatment is rarely straightforward, writes Chris Annison at Phoenix Futures.

Fragmented systems, strict criteria and the limitations of borough-based boundaries often leave people excluded before they have even had a chance to engage. At Phoenix Futures, our Regional Homeless Engagement with Substance Use Treatment (RhEST) service works to remove these barriers.

RhEST is the only pan-London substance use service, operating across 32 local authorities, each with its own structures and commissioning arrangements. Meanwhile, the people we support frequently move across boroughs, often out of necessity rather than choice. Traditional services, tied to specific geographical areas, can struggle to maintain contact when someone’s life does not remain within one set of boundaries. Our role is to bridge those gaps and ensure that access to treatment does not depend on having a stable postcode.

Our team focuses on building trusted relationships with people facing multiple disadvantage. Many have complex physical, mental and social needs. Consistency is vital, yet difficult to achieve within a system not designed for mobility. By working across boroughs, RhEST can stay alongside people no matter where they move, advocating for them when their circumstances do not neatly fit the criteria expected by commissioned services.

Recently we were involved in an initiative to develop a Rough Sleeper Pathway, designed to provide immediate hospital care for people sleeping rough with urgent health needs. This short-term project also included limited funding for residential treatment placements. The pathway enabled people to receive rapid access to physical and mental health assessments, stabilisation in a safe clinical environment and the breathing space to think about accommodation and treatment options.

Because RhEST already works pan-London and has strong relationships with a wide range of services, we were identified as the most suitable team to coordinate referrals. We worked closely with partners including the London Navigators, Homeless Health providers, Rough Sleeper teams, day centres, outreach workers and community treatment services. Together, we moved quickly, securing admissions within days of the funding becoming available. During the short period the pathway operated, 15 people were admitted for hospital-based stabilisation and 11 of those went on to residential treatment afterwards. This is a substantial increase compared to previous years when no equivalent pathway or funding existed, and it clearly demonstrates what becomes possible when the system is allowed to flex around people’s needs.

Throughout the project, we saw how fragmented and complex the system can be for people to navigate. RhEST played a pivotal role in bringing together the right agencies to make the pathway work. Most importantly, we listened to the people using our service. Instead of asking them to fit the system, we made the system work around them. The flexibility built into the pathway meant we could respond to the realities of homelessness, advocating for people whose situations often fall outside standard criteria. We saw people previously considered “unsuitable” for residential treatment flourish when finally given the opportunity.

The project also highlighted how easily people can be excluded through assumptions about “lack of engagement”. For example, some participants faced barriers that made standard preparation groups inaccessible. In one instance, a person with neurodivergent needs was unable to attend these sessions, yet this was misinterpreted as “low motivation”. In other cases, people in coercive or unsafe relationships struggled to attend appointments and were similarly judged as disengaged. Looking more closely at individuals’ circumstances made it clear these expectations were unrealistic and unfair. The pathway created space to understand these barriers and respond appropriately.

RhEST’s involvement was about more than referrals; it was about building trust in a system where trust has often been lost. Many of the people we engaged would previously have remained on the periphery of services because the pace and structure of traditional pathways do not align with the realities of rough sleeping. A trauma-informed, motivational approach was vital to the pathway’s success. This short-term funding showed what is possible when commissioning frameworks allow for flexibility. People experiencing homelessness often require more time, more consistency and a more personalised approach than standard services can currently offer. A pan-London model has proved highly effective in maintaining engagement for those who frequently move boroughs, and it highlights the need for greater discretion in decision-making around residential treatment.

We fully appreciate that funding for placements is a major consideration for commissioners. However, we would welcome a shift that allows teams greater latitude where conventional engagement expectations are unrealistic. People experiencing homelessness deserve the same access to treatment as those in stable housing, and achieving equity requires systems that reflect the complexity of their lives. Once trust is established and people begin to engage, opportunities should be genuinely equal. As a sector we talk often about holistic and person-centred care; this work has shown clearly that flexibility must be part of that. Embracing the differences in people’s circumstances and widening the door for those facing the greatest challenges is essential if we are serious about improving access. The Rough Sleeper Pathway proved that, with understanding and adaptability, treatment can be accessible and transformative, for people experiencing homelessness.

The Mayor of London told Big Issue it would take until 2026 to see the number of homeless people on London’s streets fall. New official statistics have proven him right.

The number of people sleeping rough on London’s streets fell by more than 10% in the first three months of 2026 – just as Mayor of London Sadiq Khan promised Big Issue last year. Khan, who has pledged an end to rough sleeping in London by 2030, told Big Issue in January 2025 that he didn’t expect to see surging numbers on the street fall until 2026. Official figures, released on Thursday (30 April), recorded 3,944 people sleeping rough in London between January and March this year, down 11% on the same period last year and 18% lower than in October to December 2025.

John Glenton, chief care and support officer at Riverside, said the fall is the largest percentage reduction in the number of people sleeping rough in London for eight years, outside of the Covid pandemic. “We remain hopeful that the Mayor of London’s ongoing efforts to eliminate rough sleeping by 2030 will see the number of people sleeping rough in London continue to fall during 2026,” said Glenton. “However, to reduce rough sleeping and homelessness long-term it is crucial that the government’s value for money review resets homelessness funding, so more money goes to services which prevent homelessness and rough sleeping and less on temporary accommodation.”

The Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) statistics counted 1,762 people sleeping rough for the first time between January and March – a 15% fall year-on-year. Just over three quarters spent one night on the streets. A total of 641 people were recorded as living on the streets long-term, down 9% on the same period last year and 23% lower than in October to December 2025. Khan, who is marking 10 years as mayor next month, revealed his ‘plan of action’ to end rough sleeping in London by 2030 in May last year, promising to focus on prevention. The London mayor announced refurbishment of up to 500 new empty homes, a new Ending Homelessness Hub and a dedicated rough sleeping prevention phone line. The plan was backed with £17 million in government funding.

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: “This shows important progress, but there is clearly still a lot more work to do to end rough sleeping for good by 2030. Since 2016, 20,000 people have been helped off the streets, and the mayor will continue to work closely with the government, London Councils and the homelessness sector to tackle rough sleeping and build a safer, fairer London for everyone.”

Rick Henderson, CEO at Homeless Link, said the mayor’s plan “likely played a role in this change” and described the falling figures as “encouraging”.

“The numbers of people sleeping rough remain extremely high,” said Henderson. “Years of stagnant funding and real-term cuts have pushed vital homelessness services to breaking point. This is leaving many people without critical support and exposing them to the trauma of sleeping rough. It is essential that the government supports the mayor’s plan, protecting services by ensuring they have the necessary funding to keep their doors open, providing a lifeline for vulnerable people.”

But the number of people sleeping rough in London reached record highs in 2025. Annual Chain figurers counted 13,231 people homeless on the streets between April 2024 and March 2025 – higher than at any point on record. While numbers fell across London between January and March this year, some boroughs recorded rises, including Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich and Hackney. Hackney saw the largest increase, with a 56% rise in the number of people rough sleeping compared to the same time last year, Crisis analysis found.

Crisis chief executive Matt Downie said: “We are very pleased to see the fall in rough sleeping figures in London, and now need to build on this success by tackling pressures in temporary accommodation. The single biggest intervention the Westminster government could do right now to prevent rising homelessness across the board is to unfreeze housing benefit. This will make private rent homes more affordable for people on lower incomes and offer hope for those deeply worried about keeping a roof over their heads.”

Today’s falling numbers are a boost to Sadiq Khan’s ambitions to address rough sleeping in the English capital. But London remains England’s homelessness hotspot. Separate government homelessness statistics, released on the same day, showed 75,600 households were living in temporary accommodation in the English capital as of the end of 2025.

That’s 56% of the 134,210 households living in temporary accommodation across the whole of England.

Jo Carter, CEO of Glass Door Homeless Charity, which operates homeless shelters in London, said the Renters’ Rights Act’s ban on no-fault evictions won’t be enough to reduce street homelessness on its own. The long-awaited legislation comes into force tomorrow (1 May) and the Labour government hopes it will prevent homelessness. “The latest figures on rough sleeping in London highlight the worrying situation we find ourselves in ahead of the first provisions of the Renters’ Rights Act coming into effect”, said Carter. “From tomorrow, the end of section 21 evictions will give renters greater security – a change which took years of campaigning and is worth celebrating. Unfortunately, on its own this will not be enough to stop homelessness from increasing.” Carter said Glass Door’s emergency winter night shelters received more than 1,300 applications for spaces over the winter but were forced to close registrations due to the high level of demand. She added: “Action from the government to prevent people from needing services like ours could not be more urgent. The Renters’ Rights Act represents a positive step forward, but needs to be followed up with a serious plan for tackling housing affordability and dramatically expanding the supply of social housing. If this happens, we can start to make statistics like today’s a thing of the past.”

The latest official homelessness statistics show 176,000 children in England are now living in temporary accommodation. It’s the latest record-high figure and means there are as many homeless kids as the population of Oxford, reports the Big Issue.

The number of children who are now homeless and living in temporary accommodation in England is at the highest level since records began as the country’s spiralling housing crisis has left more people than ever without a home. New statutory homelessness statistics for October to December 2025 found 176,130 dependent children were living in temporary accommodation. That’s almost equivalent to filling Wembley Stadium two times over and more than the population of Oxford or York. Households with children living in temporary accommodation is up by 0.1% since July to September 2025 and 5.9% since 31 December 2024. Almost two-thirds of the 134,210 households in temporary accommodation in England now include dependent children.

The total number of households in temporary accommodation for October to December 2025 has dropped slightly below the record levels seen in the last quarter, but still remains higher than the same time the previous year. Government statisticians explained that “while this shift is small, this is the first quarter that the number of households in temporary accommodation has fallen since 2022.” Responding to the statistics, homelessness minister Alison McGovern said: “While today’s figures show progress being made, with fewer families becoming homeless and a sharp reduction in children in B&B accommodation, there is still much to do to break the heart-breaking cycle of homelessness and bring down the unacceptable number of children in temporary accommodation. We are taking action with a homelessness strategy focused on tackling homelessness for good – backed by a record £3.6 billion to eliminate unlawful use of B&Bs for families, improve the quality of temporary accommodation and cut long term rough sleeping, so that everyone gets the secure home that they deserve.”

Youth homelessness charity Centrepoint explained that too many young people are “trapped in limbo” while living in temporary accommodation. “The increasing reliance on temporary accommodation cannot continue,” Dr Lisa Doyle, head of policy and public affairs at Centrepoint, told the Big Issue. “It is meant to be a short-term solution, however, the young households who are forced to live in it for years face the risk of repeated homelessness, poor mental health, and long-term disadvantage increases. Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet here. The government is doing the right thing by making commitments to reducing the use of temporary accommodation as well as its focus on prevention and support – but it’s increasing the level of house building, including the building of suitable one bedroom social homes, that will transform things for young people,” Doyle added. “Without that, too many young people will continue facing homelessness and excluded from stable housing and the opportunity to move forward with their lives.”

It’s a crisis that is hitting London particularly hard. There are 21 households living in temporary accommodation per 1,000 households in London, compared with 2.8 households per 1,000 in the rest of England. Housing costs in London are significantly higher than the rest of the UK and continue to rise. In the private rented sector, the average rent now accounts more than for 40% of household income. As a result, child poverty rate in London almost double once housing costs are taken into account, rising from 16% before housing costs to 31% after, a much larger increase than in any other region.

Alex Firth, advocacy officer at charity Just Fair, told the Big Issue: “These figures show a clear failure to protect children’s rights. Every child has the right to a safe, secure home, but across the UK that right is being denied on a huge scale. Housing is not a privilege, it is a human right recognised in international law. When that right is not protected, it affects everything: children’s health, education, stability and sense of security.” Firth added: “Local authorities are on the frontline, but they need the powers, funding and national leadership to act. These elections are a moment for accountability. People should be asking: will those seeking election commit to making the right to housing real in our communities? After years of rising homelessness, we need more than short-term fixes. We need a rights-based approach that guarantees everyone a safe and secure place to live.”

Rick Henderson, CEO at Homeless Link, called for leaders to “prioritise prevention and break the cycle of homelessness” to turn things around. Henderson added that the national Plan to End Homelessness must be put into action, “with local authorities rising to the challenge using the new responsibilities and opportunities given to them. It is also critical that all government departments are made to take responsibility for ensuring their policies do not unintentionally push people into homelessness,” he said. “The social security system and proposed Home Office immigration policies are of particular concern and must be addressed urgently if we are to end homelessness for good.”

The official homelessness statistics did, however, show a fall in the number of households approaching councils for support with homelessness. A total of 84,250 households had an initial homelessness assessment from a local authority over the three-month period, down 1.3% on October to December 2024. From these initial assessments, 76,270 were assessed as owed a duty to prevent or relieve homelessness. There were also 33,630 households assessed as at risk of falling into homelessness, down 3.1% from the same quarter last year. But the continued homelessness crisis is having a big impact on families in particular. The latest figures found that the most common length of time for households with children to have spent in temporary accommodation is two to five years. That’s 21,260 households and a quarter of families in temporary accommodation. Of these, 35.9% were in nightly paid accommodation. Experts have explained that council spending on temporary accommodation is continuing to soar, with the cost of placing households in temporary accommodation reaching £2.8 billion in 2024 – but this is a “sticking plaster” solution to the homelessness crisis.

John Bird, Big Issue founder and crossbench peer, said: “The government’s investment in homelessness is beginning to turn the tide. While it’s good to see numbers starting to fall, we must be wary of becoming over-reliant on the sticking plaster solution of temporary accommodation. More than 85,000 families across the UK are trapped in this limbo, with instability shaping thousands of young lives and limiting their long-term opportunities. Our councils are spending up to 60% of their so-called homelessness prevention grants on temporary accommodation. I fear ‘homelessness prevention’ is becoming a buzzword, a false promise by politicians with no new ideas. We need to invest resources in encouraging radical, innovative, challenging ideas that change the landscape of homelessness, like the Big Issue did 35 years ago.”

Every branch of government must step up and take responsibility for ending the ongoing crisis in homelessness and rough sleeping, reports Housing Digital.

The call was made in response to the latest statutory statistics, which added fuel to demands that the government crack on and implement its national plan to end homelessness. According to the latest figures for England, covering October to December 2025, 134,210 households were languishing in temporary accommodation, a rise of 5% from the same period for the previous year. This includes 176,130 children living in temporary accommodation. The number of households with children increased 5.9% from 31 December 2024 to 85,800 households in these latest figures.

Other key finding include:

• 42,640 households were found to be homeless and owed a homelessness relief duty, a decrease of 2.3% from the same quarter last year
• 33,630 households were assessed as being threatened with homelessness, and owed a prevention duty, a decrease of 3.1% from the same quarter in the previous year

Rick Henderson, chief executive at Homeless Link, said: “The numbers of families and children who are still facing homelessness, trapped in unsuitable and health-threatening temporary accommodation, doesn’t bear thinking about. We have warned the government countless times about the need to transform the system to prioritise prevention and break the cycle of homelessness. We need to see the national Plan to End Homelessness put into action, with local authorities rising to the challenge using the new responsibilities and opportunities given to them. It is also critical that all government departments are made to take responsibility for ensuring their policies do not unintentionally push people into homelessness. The social security system and proposed Home Office immigration policies are of particular concern and must be addressed urgently if we are to end homelessness for good.”

There was some more positive news when it came to London, as revealed in the latest CHAIN report covering January to March 2026. This showed that the number of people sleeping rough in the capital had fallen 11% annually to 3,944. Responding to these figures, Henderson added: “It is encouraging to see a fall in the number of people being forced to sleep on the streets in the capital. The Mayor’s Rough Sleeping Plan of Action and exemplary local services have likely played a role in this change. However, numbers of people sleeping rough remain extremely high. Years of stagnant funding and real-term cuts have pushed vital homelessness services to breaking point. This is leaving many people without critical support and exposing them to the trauma of sleeping rough. It is essential that the government supports the Mayor’s plan, protecting services by ensuring they have the necessary funding to keep their doors open, providing a lifeline for vulnerable people.”

Stephanie Morphew, policy lead at the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), added further comment on the national statistics, in light of the Renters’ Rights Act coming into force today. “As rights strengthen in the private rented sector and prevention activities at councils strengthen, a plateau in new duties owed might be on the horizon,” she said. “This is welcome, but without an at-scale plan to decant households from temporary accommodation to stable affordable-housing – we risk parking households in expensive and unsuitable temporary accommodation. In the short term, ensuring the social security payments cover private rents by restoring Local Housing Allowance rates is the single most effective lever to transition households from expensive and unsuitable temporary accommodation into a stable home. In the long term, we look forward to the government’s long-term housing strategy delivering a vision for a housing sector that works for us all.”