Counting The ‘Invisible’ Homeless Women Hiding In Plain Sight

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It’s early morning near London’s Victoria Station, and three charity workers are meeting to carry out a count of female rough sleepers, reports the BBC.

The weather has just started to turn chilly, and thoughts have turned to those – particularly women – sleeping out on the streets. “We’ve known for years that women’s rough sleeping is underestimated, from women’s own accounts of their situation,” explains Lucy Campbell, assistant director at Single Homeless Project. “But there was never any data to back that up. So in 2022 we worked with Solace Women’s Aid and a number of other organisations to design a way to go out and give voice to some of these women’s experiences.”

The Women’s Rough Sleeping Census, carried out annually since 2022, asks a series of questions about where homeless women are sleeping. Homeless men often bed down in sleeping bags and tents and are therefore more visible, but for safety concerns, many female rough sleepers don’t. They’re more likely to sleep on buses and in fast food restaurants, or walk around all night with their belongings. Through this study, homeless charities suggest there are more than 10 times as many women sleeping rough in England than government data indicates.

It’s the first time a BBC journalist has been asked to accompany a team on this count. First stop is the women’s toilets at Victoria Station, where the team finds three homeless women washing their clothes in the sink. While Lucy gets them to fill in the questionnaire in return for a £10 food voucher each, Ella and Kathryn approach a bundled-up person wearing a disposable mask who is sleeping on a bench in the train station, and at first they’re not sure if they are male or female. Homeless women will often try to disguise their gender for safety reasons. Sexual violence is always a risk.

The person turns out to be a 59-year-old woman who has been homeless since at least 2016. “She ticked off all the boxes of ‘where have you slept; outside, in stations, in cafes, in libraries, in hospitals?'” explains Ella Johnson, senior manager at Solace’s Westminster Service Housing First. “She is really transient in the way she is sleeping rough and doesn’t seem like she is accessing support from anybody at the minute.” The team take her details so that an outreach team can make contact with her.

Outside the station is a young woman begging. The team ascertain that she isn’t street homeless, take her details, offer her a voucher and move on. Not being street homeless doesn’t necessarily mean she isn’t at risk, but it does mean she can’t take part in this research. But it isn’t long before they meet 42-year-old Laura outside a phone shop, who arrived in London three days before. Laura agrees to do an interview on camera. She tells me she’s hoping to reconnect with her daughter who she says lives in the capital.

“Eleven years married, three children. My husband started drinking alcohol, started getting on the whisky and then he divorced me,” she says. That was six years ago and she’s been sleeping rough ever since. “Car parks, old buildings, squats. I’m very vulnerable as a woman being out here, outdoors. It’s very hard for a female to be outdoors. You get a lot of males approaching females offering sex.”

Kathryn Parsons, public affairs and partnerships manager for Solace, says the women they have spoken to during the count “are experiencing violence both as a cause and a consequence of their rough sleeping”. She said: “We’ve spoken to a woman today who is heavily pregnant and not being supported for her pregnancy or for her mental health or for her housing. We’ve also spoken to women who have now been given some accommodation but prior to that they had been rough-sleeping for 10 years and they weren’t seen by the government.”

She added: “Other than the near-universal experience of violence that women experience, women’s rough sleeping is transient, it’s hidden, it’s intermittent. Their experiences are fundamentally different from men’s. The government wants to turn the tide on homelessness, the government wants to halve VAWG (violence against women and girls). Neither of those things will be achieved if they don’t recognise that women’s experience is different to men, and they support the women that are on the streets or hiding because it’s too dangerous.” It is hoped that by building a clearer picture of the scale of the problem and issues women are facing, women’s charities can lobby the government for more support for them.

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “The Women’s Census helps us understand the challenges women face when getting the right support. We’re spending £1bn on vital services so that women who are sleeping rough can get safe and appropriate help. This is a first step to get us back on track towards ending homelessness once and for all.”

Homelessness Nearly Doubles In One Area Of Merseyside

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Over the past four years demand for temporary accommodation for families has grown considerably, reports the Liverpool Echo.

The number of homeless families living in temporary accommodation in one part of Merseyside has increased by more than 180% in the last four years. This rise in homelessness is being partly driven by private landlords leaving the housing sector, according to Knowsley Council, preferring the profits from ‘stocks and shares’ over rental income.

The scale of homelessness in Knowsley was laid bare during an Inclusive Growth and Skills Scrutiny Committee meeting held at Huyton’s Municipal Buildings tonight (September 9) where elected members were asked to approve a series of recommendations, including those outlined in a report on temporary accommodation in the borough.

Like every local authority, Knowsley Council has a statutory duty to provide temporary accommodation to residents who may be homeless, eligible for assistance and in priority need. Knowsley Council satisfy this obligation through the use of ‘dispersed accommodation’, which is either owned by the council, leased from private and social landlords, or utilising hotel accommodation. In terms of the data around the use of temporary accommodation in Knowsley, the report confirmed the demand for has ‘grown considerably’ over the last four years.

The figures show that in July 2021, there were 53 households (31 singles and 22 families) accommodated by the council, which has risen to 109 (44 singles, 3 couples and 62 families) by the end of July 2025 – a 181% increase in homeless families during this period. The council said it continues to lease properties from both the private and social rented sector, but notes the reduction in temporary accommodation in the private rented sector.

Responding to the report, Cllr Chantelle Lunt asked: “Looking at the demographic of temporary accommodation needs and how that has risen, I noticed that the families have gone up significantly. So for instance, the amount of single people has gone from 31 to 44 between 2021 and 2025 but families have risen from 22 to 62 families. Do we have any idea why that is, and what we’re doing to address it?”

Alan Broadbent group, manager of housing, who presented the council report, said one factor is the increase in Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions since 2021 – these evictions were banned during the Covid 19 pandemic – and added: “I think part of the reason is [also] the number of private rented tenancies that are coming to an end, that has increased considerably. I don’t profess to know the exact answer of why landlords are leaving. I think part of the reason is some of them, there will be the fear of what is coming with the Renters’ Rights Bill. The actual returns on private rented property is less now because of the changes in taxation. So I think some of them are thinking it’s a safer bet to put more money in stocks and shares.”

As with other local authorities across England, Knowsley Council uses hotels and bed and breakfast style accommodation to meet homeless temporary accommodation demand. The council said the benefits of using hotels are that they can provide ‘surge capacity’ at times where there is ‘insufficient dispersed provision’ and it can be booked at short notice. There is no time limit on hotel use for single person households, but households with dependent children should not be accommodated for longer than 42 days.

The council confirmed that there are currently ten households in Knowsley – with dependent children – occupying hotel provision, of which non have exceeded the 42-day maximum. The costs for this type of accommodation continue to be significant and despite a fall in the percentage of homeless people in hotels, the costs have increased from the same period last year.

Council’s can receive a subsidy from central government for some temporary accommodation including hotels. In Knowsley, the average hotel cost-per-night is £80 and the council receive £20 in subsidy – this means the council pays £60-per-night for each hotel stay. During the first quarter of this financial year, Knowsley Council is estimated to have spent £141,300 on hotel stays. In the same period a total of 9,121 nights of temporary accommodation were provided, of which 26% were in hotel accommodation.

The total cost of temporary accommodation – of all kinds – for the whole year is estimated to be more than £2.1m. However, the council said some of this subsidy loss will be recouped from the Preventing Homelessness Grant, allocated to support the local authority’s approach to tackling homelessness. The council also confirmed that the use of hotel provision for temporary accommodation will remain an integral part of the local authority’s approach to providing temporary accommodation, but hopes an increase in social housing provision and council owned buildings will lessen its reliance on hotels in the future.

Zarah Sultana Calls For MPs To Be Banned From Being Landlords

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The former Labour MP, who is setting up the new left-wing Your Party with Jeremy Corbyn, is sticking the boot into her former party after homelessness minister Rushanara Ali was forced to quit over a rent hike scandal, reports the Big Issue.

The Coventry South MP tabled an early day motion (EDM) on Monday (8 September) calling on the government to bring forward legislation to stop MPs from owning and letting out residential properties while in office. The motion, which has been put forward in conjunction with community and tenants union ACORN, comes a month after homeless minister Rushanara Ali was forced to quit after putting her home back on the rental market for £700 a month extra after tenants had left.

Sultana left Labour after being stripped of the whip last year for supporting a SNP call for scrapping the two-child benefit cap before resigning her party membership in July. She has since been working with Corbyn to launch Your Party. It’s not known if that is the final name of the party but it has so far reportedly attracted up to 700,000 members. Sultana said: “At a time of an ongoing housing crisis, when the Renters’ Rights Bill seeks to hold landlords to account, it is more urgent than ever to ensure that members of parliament do not profit as landlords from the rental housing market but focus on serving their constituents in securing affordable homes for all.”

Labour’s Renters’ Rights Bill moved into its final stages this week following a debate in the House of Commons. The bill does not include any legislation relating to MPs being landlords. MPs are required to declare rental income of more than £10,000 a year to parliament’s register of interests. A total of 83 MPs are currently landlords.

It is unlikely that Sultana’s motion will turn the tide – it only has two supporters so far: the Democratic Unionist Party’s Jim Shannon and Sultana herself. The Renters’ Rights Bill – and its failed Tory precursor the Renters Reform Bill – has faced pro-landlord opposition throughout its long passage through parliament. But Sultana’s motion shows the fallout from Ali’s resignation has continued to reverberate through Westminster.

“MPs should be focused on serving their constituents, without the influence of financial interests in the rental housing market,” said ACORN national chair Chelsea Phillips.  “We cannot rely on MPs to make impartial decisions for renters when they themselves are making money from the housing crisis. This is clearer than ever following the resignation of homelessness minister Rushanara Ali after her actions as a landlord acted against the spirit of the government’s own Renters’ Rights Bill. With the Labour Party having more landlords than any other party, this EDM couldn’t be more vital.”

ACORN and Zarah Sultana aren’t the only ones who have called for MPs to be blocked from being landlords. Big Issue ambassador Kwaio Tweneboa made a similar suggestion following Ali’s exit. Writing for Big Issue, he said: “Imagine the person tasked with ending rough sleeping and fixing the temporary accommodation crisis also personally profits from a rental market that has priced so many people out of a secure home. It is not just a bad look, it is a fundamental clash of interests. How can we have full faith in someone to solve homelessness when they stand to gain from the same broken system that fuels it?”

Homeless Family Payout Row Referred To Government

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A watchdog has called on the government to intervene after a city council refused to compensate a family it had failed, who were fleeing domestic abuse, reports the BBC.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman ruled in November a mother was not given the correct support when she asked Leicester City Council for help. She fled her home with her children to a refuge and was then placed in an interim bed and breakfast (B&B) before being referred to self-contained accommodation. The council said it would compensate the woman £500 but would not accept a further £1,300 recommended by the watchdog, as it was based on laws from more than 20 years ago that “do not take account of the national housing crisis”.

It previously said the precedent set by following the ombudsman’s full recommendation would cost the council £220,000. According to UK law, families should only be put in B&B accommodation as a last resort for no longer than six weeks. But the family was placed into a B&B, split across two rooms, for 19 weeks. The family was eventually offered a one-bedroom property and, despite the council acknowledging it was not suitable, it failed to tell the mother she could appeal, the ombudsman said.

The watchdog has since issued a further report welcoming the council investing “significantly” to tackle its housing shortage, said the Local Democracy Reporting Service. But it has written to the new secretary of state for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Steve Reed, to highlight its concerns about the council’s handling of the case.

Ombudsman Amerdeep Somal said the decision had not been “taken lightly”, and said: “It is incredibly rare for local councils not to accept our recommendations. The council appears to be rejecting our findings because it does not believe it should be accountable because of a wider housing crisis. The law was made to protect homeless families. We cannot hold the council to a lower or different threshold. Many other councils face similar challenges.”

“The mother has told me the extra stress of living in unsuitable housing has badly affected both her mental and physical health. Leicester’s refusal to make the payments we recommended means the family has not received any proper recognition of what they have been through. This has only added to the upset she continues to feel.”

The issue is set to be discussed at next week’s full council meeting. A spokesperson for Leicester City Council said: “We are currently considering the ombudsman’s second report and will be notifying their office of the action we intend to take in due course. As we received the report while finalising the agenda for our next full council meeting, the council’s monitoring officer has submitted it to the meeting so that councillors have the opportunity to review it before any final decision on the next steps is taken.”

‘Women-Only Homeless Facility Helps Me Feel Safe After Abuse’

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A woman living in a new women-only accommodation service has said it has enabled her to “feel safe” and helped her to “rebuild” her life, reports the BBC.

Charmaine turned to alcohol to cope with trauma after experiencing domestic violence and became homeless. She is one of 22 women living in the facility run by The Simon Community that had been a mixed gender hostel. The homeless charity said there was an “urgent and growing need” for women-only spaces.

The accommodation offers private rooms, shared kitchens and living areas, plus support tailored specifically for women experiencing homelessness. Charmaine said when she arrived at the facility and saw 22 beds, but only two or three women there, she felt it was “very overwhelming and quite intimidating”. “For the first couple of weeks I stayed in my room. I found it hard to blend in. I had never been in this environment before. I was frightened,” she said.

Charmaine told BBC News NI it was important to have women-only spaces. “Because of my background. I feel so much more comfortable here. A mixed gender setting is not for everyone,” she said. “It’s my first proper little home that I have lived in independently. I’ve never had my own kitchen, I’ve never had my own sofa, I have never had my own front door key, that is very important to me.”

She added: “It’s my sanctuary. I still get overwhelmed sometimes when I walk into my home and think ‘this is my place’, no one coming through this door unless I let them through. I feel safe.”

The Simon Community said that thousands of women across Northern Ireland are experiencing homelessness. Karen McAlister from the Simon Community said: “We know that when women become homeless they want a choice in relation to feeling safe. What women have told us is that their childhood is often filled with abuse and violence has continued through their adult life and some of that violence has been perpetrated by men and to have a space where it is ‘women-only’ is something that makes them feel safe and secure.”

The charity said that between October 2024 and March 2025, 609 households presented as homeless to the Housing Executive because of domestic violence. Eighty-three per cent of those were women. Ms McAlister added that the charity’s objective was to help women “move out of homelessness”.

English Councils Pay Private Landlords Millions To House Homeless Families

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Data gathered by Generation Rent shows 37 councils spent £31m in 2024-25 in one-off payments to individual landlords, reports The Guardian.

Councils across England are increasingly spending millions of pounds a year in incentive payments to private landlords to persuade them to house homeless families, with campaigners describing it as a “senseless waste of public money”. Data gathered by the campaign group Generation Rent via freedom of information requests showed that 37 councils spent more than £31m on one-off cash payments to private landlords on 10,792 occasions in 2024-25.

The data, from the 32 London councils and the 10 councils outside the capital with the biggest statutory homelessness issues, showed cash-strapped local authorities are increasingly using these payments to encourage landlords to house families who are homeless or facing eviction. In London, the amount being spent by councils on incentives to private landlords has increased by 54% since 2018, the last time data was collected.

Ben Twomey, the chief executive at Generation Rent, said: “The soaring cost of renting and the government’s decision to freeze the local housing allowance has put councils across the country in a near impossible position. In a desperate bid to avoid placing people in temporary accommodation, they’re forced to pay individual landlords sometimes tens of thousands of pounds just for them to agree to rent out their home. It’s a senseless waste of our public money.”

Manchester city council spent the most on landlord incentives, spending £3.3m in 2024-25, with Enfield council in north London spending £2.7m, Ealing council in west London spending £2.3m and Birmingham city council spending £1.7m. Many of these local authorities are facing budget deficits and pushing through cuts to services and council tax hikes. Manchester city council reported an £18m budget gap earlier this year, while Birmingham city council made the largest cuts in local authority history after declaring itself effectively bankrupt.

The highest single one-off payment to a landlord, £15,385, was paid by Southwark council in south London, with many other councils frequently paying more than £10,000 to landlords. In 2018, only one council in London reported paying £10,000 or more in a single incentive payment, while six reported doing so in 2024-25.

Twomey described the rental market as “like the wild west”, with landlords “rigging the system to line their own pockets at the expense of people experiencing homelessness and the local councils that are trying to house them”. He urged the government to unfreeze local housing allowance rates and give metro mayors the powers to limit rent increases to help curb the practice.

Chris Norris, the policy director at the National Residential Landlords Association, said the incentives were a “poor way of funding the housing system” but had come out of an “enormous shortfall between local housing allowance rates in almost every area of the country and market rents”. He said landlords were “increasingly finding that people who are reliant on local housing allowance or universal credit simply can’t afford to rent”, and the incentives allowed landlords to take on families who were likely to fall into arrears.

Norris also said incentives were offered to landlords to get them to take on tenants “perceived to represent a higher risk”, such as people with substance use issues or who had come out of prison. “Frankly, it does a job and it’s probably the least bad option available to a lot of local authorities at the moment,” he said. “It helps landlords cover their costs and to offer accommodation, but it would be far more efficient and equitable if the government actually ensured there was a welfare system that allowed people to access homes in the first place.”

But campaigners said the system was open to abuse, and landlords could play councils off against each other or issue eviction notices in order to gain further payment. Grace Williams, the executive member for housing and regeneration at London Councils, said the capital was grappling with “the most extreme homelessness emergency in the country”, and boroughs were facing huge difficulties meeting their legal duty to find accommodation for homeless residents. “Rather than using expensive hotels and B&Bs, working with local landlords in the private rented sector can secure better outcomes for homeless families and improved value for money,” she said.

Birmingham city council said incentive payments were a “necessary and pragmatic response” to the fact more than 25,000 people in the city were on the housing register. Ealing council said incentive payments helped homeless households overcome barriers in accessing the rented sector, such as lack of credit history, affordability or previous tenancy experience.

A Manchester city council spokesperson said the private rented sector was better value for money, and more appropriate and secure, than the “alternative options of costly hotels and B&Bs”, which were also unlawful except in exceptional circumstances, and time-limited to six weeks.

Single-Parent Families Almost Four Times More Likely To Be Homeless

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Shelter research found there has been a 10% increase in families facing homelessness over the last five years with single-parent families more likely to fall into difficulty, reports The Big Issue.

Single-parent families are almost four times as likely to experience homelessness than those with two parents, Shelter has warned, as more adults and children face losing their home. The housing charity’s analysis of government statistics found 124,210 families in England contacted councils for support in 2024-25 after being threatened with homelessness or losing their home. That’s equivalent to one in every 57 families across the country. But a higher proportion of single-parent families are grappling with homelessness. The figures show 70,630 of the total households were led by a single parent, making up one in every 24 single-parent families across England.

Shelter found a 10% increase in families contacting local authorities for support over the last five years. Homelessness has been rising in recent years, particularly the number of families housed in temporary accommodation. The charity has launched a new TV advert with HSBC UK to highlight the grim conditions thousands of families are living in. The ad, set to a cover version of Madness’ Our House, follows one family’s story as they navigate life in temporary accommodation.

“It’s utterly disgraceful that across the country, more and more families are being pushed to the brink of homelessness,” said Nadeem Khan, Shelter’s emergency helpline manager. “Soaring rents, low incomes, and a chronic shortage of social homes mean that even parents who work tirelessly to put food on the table are struggling to keep a roof over their heads. Every day, we hear from people living with the constant fear that they could lose their home the moment an eviction notice drops through their letterbox. Many are skipping meals just to cover rent, cutting back on essentials, and making impossible choices simply to stay afloat.”

That’s the experience facing Angela Carruthers, who has been homeless for two years and is currently living in temporary accommodation in Birmingham.

Carruthers and her children have been moved three times since losing their home of 12 years. When the family moved into their current accommodation – late at night after a long shift at work – there was no electricity, and the boiler was broken. They spent five days without heating, hot water or power before repairs were finally carried out.

Carruthers contacted Shelter after being threatened with eviction when she couldn’t keep up with the housing costs in her temporary accommodation. Support from one of the charity’s housing advisers helped Carruthers and her kids stay in their current home. “We were in our home for over 12 years, and it was perfect. The kids loved it, their school and my work was down the road, everything just worked. Then the landlord sold up and we were evicted. I couldn’t get a viewing anywhere – the private rents were impossible,” said Carruthers.

“That’s when we ended up in temporary accommodation. It was freezing; no boiler, no heating, no hot water – we were washing with kettle water out of a bowl. It felt inhumane. I’m working full-time but still can’t cover the rent. I’ve had to borrow money just to feed my kids. We should be out living life, but we can’t. When I got an email saying we were being evicted again, I was at breaking point. I didn’t know how I could keep going. When I spoke to Shelter, they were the first people who really listened. They helped me stay in this property – just knowing someone was there took some of the pressure off.”

Shelter found single-parent families were disproportionately affected across all areas of England but the risk facing families varied in different parts of the country. London and the North East, which saw 24% and 31% rises in homelessness among single-parent families over the last five years, were singled out as being particularly badly affected. The research will be food for thought for the government as parliament returns.

Labour is set to lay out its cross-governmental long-term strategy to tackle homelessness in the weeks ahead and has pledged to spend £1bn to “turn the tide” on homelessness and rough sleeping. But the government currently doesn’t have a homelessness minister in place to lead its efforts after Rushanara Ali quit her post last month over a rent hike scandal.

Shelter’s new campaign aims to draw attention to the issue as numbers continue to spiral out of control. Natalie Gregoire-Skeete, HSBC UK’s head of societal purpose and sustainability, said: “With over 124,000 families in England at risk of homelessness, the ‘Our House’ campaign paints the stark reality faced by far too many families in the UK.”

A Charity Is Giving People Money To Stop Homelessness

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… and it says it’s working, reports the BBC.

When Laura Burns was asked to leave her flat as her landlord was selling up, she discovered she didn’t have enough money to move. Energy debts and removal costs meant she needed hundreds of pounds to get a new flat. Feeling trapped and facing eviction, the mother-of-one turned to a charity and asked for £600. The money came through almost instantly. “I was like, ‘oh my goodness’, this is a weight off my mind,” says the 32-year-old from Didcot, in Oxfordshire. “There are no words to describe leaving that stress behind.”

Greater Change, the charity that helped Laura, believes giving money to people who are homeless or those at risk of losing their properties with few strings attached can help tackle homelessness. So far this year, it says the charity has paid out £699,000 to 403 people. The initiative is small in scale – the homeless charity Shelter estimated there were more than 350,000 homeless people in England at the end of last year. But Greater Change says the scheme has the potential to save money in the long-run. “We’re giving people dignity of choice,” says the charity’s chief executive, Jonathan Tan. “Very often, in a homelessness pathway, it feels like it’s things being done to you and so we’re giving people the ability to make choices about their lives.”

The money is paid out through a support worker and the charity says it will listen to all requests for help. It says people typically spend the money on rent deposits, bills or tackling debts. Greater Change, which was formed by two university friends in 2018, is funded from donations, philanthropists, grant-making bodies and councils. It says its approach saves taxpayers tens of thousands of pounds per client by preventing people from becoming homeless and therefore needing support from their local authority. “We’re happy to fund anything under the sun as long as it aligns with the individual’s ambitions and helps them to take that next big step out of homelessness,” says Mr Tan. The charity says 86% of people it has supported moved into stable housing, with almost half finding a job.

But one concern is homeless people could spend the money on feeding addictions. Asked how the charity ensures the money it gives out isn’t spent on drugs and alcohol, Mr Tan says: “The first and most important thing to say is the international evidence is that people tend to make pretty good choices.”

He says almost half of those supported were able to get a job. One of the studies he points to is the New Leaf project, in Vancouver, Canada. It gave 50 people who were homeless around £4,000 (CAD$7,500) each directly rather than via a support worker. It also monitored another 65 homeless people who they didn’t help. A follow-up study showed that after a year, those who had received the money spent fewer days without a home. There was also no evidence that they had increased spending on things like drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

A smaller scale project in the UK has shown similar results. The Personal Grants project, which involved 81 people, led by the London-based St Martin-in-the-Fields charity working alongside organisations in Glasgow, Oxford and Swansea, paid money directly into the bank accounts of homeless people. The Personal Grants project has not had “a single adverse incident among any participants”, according to the Centre for Homelessness Impact, which also worked on the scheme. They say people spent the money on furniture, books, clothes or simply saved it. “None spent the money on drugs, alcohol, or gambling,” say the Centre. They are now recruiting 250 people in Belfast and London to test the concept on a larger scale, with the project overseen by researchers from Kings College, London.

Greater Change acknowledges that its support is most effective when it is used as an early intervention – when someone is sofa surfing, or at risk of homelessness – rather than for helping entrenched rough sleepers who might need intensive mental health support for instance. Various campaigns over the years have actively discouraged people from giving money to people on the streets, arguing the funds could be misused. These projects also do not tackle the fundamental cause of most homelessness – there is a widespread acknowledgement that a lack of affordable housing is the key to solving the crisis and the government has committed to building 1.5m homes by August 2029. But the charity says such innovative schemes can be extremely helpful to some people.

Since receiving her grant, Laura Burns’ life has been transformed – she now has a new home, a job and is about to get married. The money she received was the right help, at the right time. “I know you don’t get much for £600 these days. But for me it was a life-saving amount of money. Life is now dandy.”

Thousands Of Refugees Facing Homelessness

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Refugees will have less time to try and find new accommodation when evicted from Home Office hotels, reports The Independent.

Thousands of refugees could face homelessness this winter after the Home Office reversed a policy wing migrants more time to find accommodation before they are evicted from hotels. Asylum seekers are housed in hotels around the country while they wait for their claims to be processed, but when they receive a successful refugee grant — enabling them to live and work in the UK — they are evicted.

In December last year, Labour extended the time that people had before eviction from 28 days to 56 days after councils and charities raised concerns that thousands of refugees were turning up homeless. However, ministers have now reversed this decision, with charities warning that they will face a surge of homeless refugees.

Alex Fraser, British Red Cross director of refugee services said: “Reducing the ‘move-on’ period will increase levels of homelessness and destitution for people granted protection and put additional pressure on local authorities. The numbers don’t add up. It takes around 35 days to receive Universal Credit. Local authorities need 56 days to work with households at risk of homelessness. Giving people only 28 days to find work, housing or support isn’t enough time. Making people destitute ends up costing the taxpayer more money and causing distress and hardship. We urge the government to review this decision.”

Councils were increasingly swamped by requests for emergency housing help from homeless refugees throughout 2024, data shared with The Independent showed. There are more than 32,000 asylum seekers living in hotels, government data from June 2025 says.

Steve Smith, CEO of Care4Calais, said: “The 56-day move on period didn’t solve everything, but it did put refugees who have just been granted protection on the same statutory footing as every other citizen in the UK. Cutting the move-on period back to 28-days isn’t just bad for newly granted refugees, it’s bad for our communities and extremely bad for councils who are picking up the tab of increasing homelessness. Sadly, this regressive move is in keeping with the daily onslaught of policies which are aimed at making life harder for people seeking sanctuary in this country, not fixing the glaring problems with the UK’s broken asylum system.”

A government spokesperson said: “This government inherited a broken asylum and immigration system. We are taking practical steps to turn that chaos around — including doubling asylum decision-making to clear the backlog left by the previous government, and reducing the number of people in hotels by 6,000 in the first half of 2025. We continue to work with local councils, NGOs and other stakeholders to ensure any necessary assistance is provided for those individuals who are granted refugee status.”

Vulnerable People At Risk Of Homelessness

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More than a decade of funding cuts has pushed specialist homes to the brink, with 50,000 at risk of closing their doors, a survey by the National Housing Federation (NHF) found, reports the Mirror.

One in 10 homes for vulnerable or disabled people face closure, leaving tens of thousands at risk of homelessness or being stuck in hospital. More than a decade of funding cuts has pushed specialist homes to the brink, with 50,000 at risk of closing their doors without an urgent cash injection, a survey by the National Housing Federation (NHF) found. Supported housing helps those with a range of complex needs, including young people leaving care, survivors of domestic abuse, older people and veterans, people with mental health needs and people with learning disabilities. Without these homes, an additional 71,000 people could be homeless or at risk of homelessness.

Analysis found it would create the need for 14,000 more inpatient psychiatric places, 2,500 residential care places and 2,000 more prison places. Shortages of supported housing last year resulted in 109,029 days of delayed discharge from mental health hospitals, costing the NHS an estimated £71million.

NHF chief Kate Henderson said: “For years, providers have had no choice but to reduce services because of cuts to funding and increasing financial pressures. Thousands of supported homes have been lost over the last few years alone and these residents are having their quality of life and opportunities taken away, as well as being at risk of homelessness. The government must urgently come up with a plan to identify long-term, sustainable funding, alongside emergency funding for supported housing, to prevent more schemes having to close their doors.”

The number of supported homes across England has fallen below the level in 2007, with a 325,000 shortfall of homes, the NHF said. Over half (56%) of the 126 providers surveyed warned they had schemes at imminent risk of closing without an urgent cash injection, A fifth (22%) said they may have to close all their services entirely, without emergency and long-term funding. The National Audit Office estimates that funding for supported housing was cut by 75% between 2010 and 2020, leaving providers struggling to support the same services with £1bn less every year. Meanwhile providers face pressure from inflation and rising energy bills, as well as building safety repairs and staffing costs.

Stephen Battersby, 59, who has bipolar disorder and some learning disabilities, was forced to move into a secure unit for nine months following the deaths of his parents. But moving into Nicholas Court, a supported housing scheme run by Advance in London, in 2019 has allowed him to build a life for himself. Maria Mahmood, who has been working with him for four years, said: “When he first came, Stephen was very withdrawn and didn’t leave his bedroom. He also didn’t have the knowledge and understanding of why it’s important to clean and maintain your own home, socialise with others. Now, he has the confidence to take part in activities, prepare meals with staff and even present his artwork in public – something Stephen would have never even considered when he first came to us.”

Julie Layton, chief executive of Advance, said: “A good quality home for everybody is a basic fundamental thing. People can grow and thrive if they have safe and secure housing.” She added: “It just feels like a tragedy to be in this position of the most vulnerable people in society at risk of losing their homes and support because there isn’t sustainable funding in place.”

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “Everyone deserves to live in a safe, secure home, and we are taking decisive action to make this a reality with supported housing playing a vital role in our communities. Through our Plan for Change we are delivering the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation, with a £39 billion investment, work with local authorities to enable them to better understand their supported housing needs and ensuring providers meet the national standards set out by the Supported Housing Act.”