Homeless Hostel Failed Vulnerable Resident Before Fatal Overdose

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Investigation into death of Joe Black, 39, at Holmes Road in Camden found inadequate support and missed safeguarding opportunities, reports the Guardian.

An award-winning homeless hostel in the constituency of the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, has been lambasted after an independent investigation into the death of one of its residents. Joe Black, 39, died after a drug overdose in 2023 at Holmes Road Studios in Camden, north London. He was a talented musician who had studied at the Royal Northern College of Music as a child. The hostel, which won a prestigious award from the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba) and boasted a zero-tolerance policy to drugs, was created for single homeless people with support needs. But residents told the Guardian that it was “like a legalised crack den” where drugs were consumed and sold on site. They alleged staff turned a blind eye to dealing and offered little in the way of support.

The Safeguarding Adults Review (SAR), a multi-agency process that examines cases where an adult with care and support needs has experienced serious harm or death due to abuse or neglect, concluded that Black was failed in multiple ways. Black had been cuckooed in his previous residence, with drug dealers taking over his flat and threatening to kill him. Despite this and a dual diagnosis of schizophrenia and substance misuse, the SAR stated that “his vulnerability does not appear to have been fully recognised”. A case note at the time that Black moved into Holmes Road says that although he had not taken drugs since the cuckooing, he “might be tempted back into drug use by other residents who may still be users” was ignored. The review said this “should have been seen as a theme throughout Joe’s support planning and risk assessments whilst he was at Holmes Road’’.

The hostel was criticised for not referring him for a care needs assessment to see whether Black needed a care coordinator (he had previously had one when living in another London borough), not treating his schizophrenia and substance misuse in tandem, not working effectively with him or his mother, not referring him to the national drug and alcohol service, and classifying him as “medium risk” only a month before he died. “The risk was clearly ‘high’ given his death so soon after,” it concluded. The review said that the hostel did not make it clear what service and support it offered. “A Google search will show the architectural merits of the hostel, but not the services and support offered,” it stated.

At the inquest into Black’s death in December 2024, Black’s key worker at Holmes Road said that he was known to be “very active in the hostel at night procuring substances”, and that staff knew he “spent all his money on drugs”. The key worker also acknowledged that after a safeguarding incident in March 2023, he was known to be “extremely vulnerable and being exploited in the hostel” yet no action was taken to escalate concern or further support. The coroner found that naloxone, a drug that can reverse an opioid overdose if administered in time, was locked in the office and only available through Camden’s drug and alcohol services. After the inquest, he wrote a prevention of future deaths report suggesting naloxone should be made more readily available.

A Camden council spokesperson said: “We will take on the learning from the review, which will help us work with our partners in a more coordinated and effective way to improve the support Camden residents receive. In addition to the recommendations in Joe’s safeguarding review, we have made improvements to the operation of Holmes Road hostel in the last year and agreed a plan for further improvements to support residents living in our hostels.” The spokesperson added: “We have a zero-tolerance approach to drug dealing and while some residents who come to the hostel may be using drugs, we provide drug intervention services to help and support them.”

In a statement to the review, Black’s family said: “On day one at the Holmes Road hostel, Joe sent a message to his mother, Jude, saying that it was ‘hell on earth for me’ there. His words, ‘I am going to die here, mum’ will haunt her forevermore.” The family added: “We sincerely hope that the recommendations of this Safeguarding Adults Review are urgently put in place in Joe’s memory and that they will have a positive, lasting impact on the care and support for vulnerable adults with a complex mental illness. We remain devastated by Joe’s death and do not want any other family to endure such a tragic loss and the deepest grief.”

High Rents One Cause Of Rising Homelessness

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Figures from the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) show that the number of people “living on the streets” in London from April to June this year is up 26% from the same period of 2024. And it’s more than double compared to ten years ago, reports Letting Agent Today.

The data shows:

  • The number of people deemed to be ‘living on the streets’ is 788, up by 26% on the same period last year and up 102% compared to ten years ago.
  • A person is considered to be “living on the streets” if they have had multiple contacts with outreach teams over three weeks or more.
  • Overall 4392 people were recorded sleeping rough in London between April and June, up from 4% on the same time last year. This is up 58% compared to ten years ago.
  • The number of people sleeping rough for the first time in London between April and June has risen 4% compared to the same period last year and 33% from the number ten years ago.
  • The number women seen sleeping rough increased by 13% to 755 compared to same time last year. This made up 18% of all people seen sleeping rough between April and June.

A statement from homelessness charity Crisis says several factors are driving people onto the streets and keeping them there including rising rents, real-terms cuts to housing benefit and significant gaps in support services. Underpinning these issues is a chronic shortage of social and affordable housing across Britain, which is pushing more people to the brink and into all forms of homelessness. The new data on rough sleeping follows government figures released last week showing more than 130,000 households in temporary accommodation in England at the end of March 2025. This includes almost 170,000 children – a record high.

Crisis welcomes the recent commitment by the UK Government of £39 billion in funding for social and affordable homes and the announcement of £100m for homelessness prevention between 2026-27 and 2029-30. However, the charity stresses the need for these homes to be delivered as quickly as possible, for housing benefit to be restored to cover the cheapest third of rents, and for gaps in support services to be addressed. It emphasises the importance of addressing these issues in the forthcoming cross-government strategy on ending homelessness, due later this year, which will outline how departments will work together to tackle the issue.

Matt Downie, Crisis chief executive, says: “We have seen positive steps to tackle homelessness in the UK Government’s recent Spending Review, including vital funding for social and affordable housing. We were also pleased that the Mayor of London’s plan for tackling rough sleeping included housing as a solution. However, far too many people are still being forced to sleep rough across Britain.”

“It’s crucial that the forthcoming cross-government strategy for ending homelessness is joined up with plans for delivering social homes as quickly as possible, so that people can move into secure housing as a matter of urgency. Westminster must also reverse the cut to housing benefit, which is putting people at risk of losing their homes now, and fix gaps in support services so that people are not discharged from institutions including hospitals and prisons onto the streets. Homelessness should not exist in our society. It can and must be prevented as a matter of national priority.”

Rough Sleepers In Liverpool Ordered To Pack Up Their Tents

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One man said “I can’t even go to the toilet without fear of having my tent taken”, reports the Liverpool Echo.

People sleeping rough on the streets of Liverpool woke this morning to find notices pinned to their tents ordering them to move on, or pay the costs. The letters, from the Highways Department at Liverpool City Council, said the tents on Lord Street and Church Street were “an obstruction and a nuisance”. The people living in the tents now have seven days to move, or risk losing their shelter as the Council will seek a disposal order from the magistrates’ court.

Ed Fryer was one of the people issued with the notice this morning, July 22. The 49-year-old, who told The ECHO he had been sleeping rough on and off for most of his life, currently resides in a tent in the city centre with his two dogs, Lillian and Big Bear. He said: “I’ve had about 20 tents taken. The Council keeps taking them. They give you seven days and after that they take it to court. You don’t appear in court, but after that they come back with another one of these (letters), and a few days later they take your tent. It leaves me without a tent with the two dogs out here. Everything is soaking wet already because of the rain. So it’s not great. But it’s the only little bit of shelter I’ve got. I’m not bothered about myself but it’s my dogs, they’re my babies. If it didn’t have them I’d have nothing.”

He added: “As soon as your back’s turned, I can’t even go to the toilet without fear of having my tent taken, and all my belongings. I keep saying there’s only one way from here and that’s up. But it’s not because they keep trying to push us down further. It’s like I’ve been thrown in the Mersey and someone’s got their foot down on my head. That’s how it feels.” He said he had been offered a place to stay by the YMCA – but that he was told he would have to get rid of one of his beloved dogs, which he refused to do.

Another man, who was sleeping rough on Lord Street, said: “They give us a date to move on. You pick up your tent and move down the street somewhere else, just keep moving on. I’ve always just moved on, so I don’t know what actually happens if I didn’t move my tent. (I’ll go) to one side of the city, then I’ll come back again. You can sleep on the ground, but you can’t have a tent, that’s what they say. You can sleep in the shelter, you can sleep in a doorway, you can sleep (on the street), but you can’t have this.”

The notices, sent under Section 149 (1) of the Highways Act 1980, read: “To the person who deposited the tent placed on the highway at [street name]. TAKE NOTICE that Liverpool City Council (‘the Council’) being the highway authority for the area of Liverpool considers that the tent placed on the highway at [street name] Liverpool constitutes an obstruction and a nuisance. The Council therefore requires the tent to be removed from the highway forthwith. If you fail to remove the tent within the next seven days, then the Council will without further notice make a complaint to the magistrates’ court for a removal and disposal order to remove the tent and recover all the associated costs of removal from you.”

Along with the notice, Ed said he had been provided with a postcard containing a link to the “help for rough sleepers” section of the Council website. The page invites anyone who is concerned about someone sleeping rough in Liverpool to call the 24-hour ‘Always Help Available’ helpline on 0300 123 2041, or make an online referral to the Whitechapel centre.

He said: “They say phone it and you’ll get help and support, but you just end up back in your tent. He added: “We didn’t ask for this. It’s a vicious circle. Some people (on the streets) try to rob you so you don’t know who you can trust. You don’t know who you can turn to. Everyone needs an escape somehow. I’ve got my dogs. I have a little drink sometimes, I’ll be honest. My money goes on dog food and dog treats. I feed them before I feed myself because they can’t do it themselves. I’ve been out here too long. On and off most of my life. They’ve got me down as a prolific rough sleeper. I’m a recovering addict so hostels are not good for me – before you know it you’re back to square one, and I’d end up losing my dogs.”

A spokesperson for Liverpool City Council said: “Our highways maintenance team checks weekly for tents that may be obstructing the public highway or blocking buildings’ emergency exits and will take appropriate action as needed. As well as ensuring that the highway is safe for everyone, the council and its partners also takes a ‘safeguarding first’ approach to the use of tents and other shelters, as using tents can present a number of issues for vulnerable people, for example if they are unwell and need emergency assistance. To support rough sleepers, the council funds a range of services including the Liverpool Assertive Outreach and Response Service. As always, anyone concerned about a rough sleeper can contact the Always Help Available helpline on 0300 123 2041 at any time.”

Child Poverty And Homelessness In Merseyside Is Rising

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The Labour government may have promised change but the numbers are going in the wrong direction, reports the Liverpool Echo.

Child poverty and child homelessness is rising – with worrying new numbers showing the scale of the problems facing youngsters in our region. While the new Labour government has pledged to address these critical issues, our data shows things are going in the wrong direction. That data shows that a record number of homeless children were living in temporary accommodation in Merseyside in March. There were a total of 1,749 children declared homeless and living in temporary accommodation in Merseyside between January and March this year, according to figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. That’s up from 1,356 at the end of June, just before the new Labour government came to power, and is the highest number since quarterly local authority level figures became available in June of 2019.

Back then there were 328 homeless children in temporary accommodation across our county, five times fewer than in March of this year. The bulk of the total are located in Liverpool. There were 1,246 homeless children in the city at the end of March. That’s up from 966 in the three months to June last year, and 211 in the three months to June 2019. The number of homeless children living in temporary accommodation across England has also risen to record levels. There were 169,050 children living in temporary accommodation across the country in the three months ending March 2025. It’s the highest number on record, up from 159,380 at the end of June last year, just before the election. National figures go further back than local data. There were 51,310 homeless children living in temporary accommodation in March 2010, just before the Conservative-led coalition government came to power. That means the number more than trebled under the coalition and Conservative governments.

Responding to the figures, Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, said: “Behind every statistic are thousands of stories of people facing some of the most stressful, traumatic and insecure times of their lives. More and more children are spending their formative years trapped living in temporary accommodation, often in overcrowded and unsafe conditions and at huge cost to local authorities. This is a national scandal that demands government action. Renting is broken. With rent prices soaring far beyond what we earn, people are forced into temporary accommodation because they simply can’t find somewhere affordable to live. The government’s house building programme is welcome, but will take years to have a noticeable impact. People need change now. Government must slam the brakes on soaring rents, while also unfreezing Local Housing Allowance so those on low incomes are also able to stay in their homes.”

There has been a similarly grim rise in the number of kids who are growing up in poverty. New figures show that across Merseyside and Cheshire, there are now more than 111,000 children growing up in relative low-income households. The full figure shows that 111,793 children under 16 are now living in poverty across the wider region, up from 107,759 last year. The child poverty rate has jumped from 22.3% to 24.8%, widening the gap with the rest of England and remaining above the national average. The data also highlights a worrying rise in in-work poverty. Now, 64% of children in low-income households are from working families, up from 60% the previous year. Meanwhile, 17,600 households across Cheshire and Merseyside are affected by the two-child benefit cap, deepening hardship for many larger families. The government has so far resisted calls to remove the cap, brought in as a policy by the Conservatives.

Lone-parent households and Black and ethnic minority communities continue to experience some of the highest rates of child poverty in the region. Child poverty negatively affects nearly every part of a child’s life, including infant mortality, school readiness, educational attainment, mental health, and long-term wellbeing. It also impacts productivity and damages future prospects for entire communities. Regional leaders from public health, the NHS, children’s services and the voluntary sector, all working together through the Champs Public Health Collaborative, say the rising figures highlight the urgent need for coordinated action at every level. This week, leaders welcomed Clare Brookes, the new Head of the Child Poverty Unit, and members of her team to Cheshire and Merseyside to see the local response in action.

The Government’s Child Poverty Unit, established in July 2024, is tasked with coordinating a national response to child poverty by bringing together expertise from across departments. They are working to support the Ministerial Child Poverty Taskforce to deliver the Government’s Child Poverty Strategy in Autumn. During the visit, the Child Poverty Unit met families in Sefton to hear first-hand about the challenges they face and saw examples of how partners across Cheshire and Merseyside are working together through integrated local action to tackle child poverty.

Professor Matthew Ashton, Director of Public Health for Liverpool and Co-Chair of Cheshire and Merseyside’s All Together Fairer Board, said: “Child poverty is rising fast across our region and many of those affected are in working families. This isn’t a future crisis, it’s happening now. Across Cheshire and Merseyside, we’re working together to make a difference locally, but we know we can go further, faster with the right national support. We welcome the Government’s engagement and look forward to working together to ensure every child has the best start in life.”

Dave Bradburn, Director of Public Health for Wirral and the Champs Public Health Collaborative’s Lead for Children and Young People, said: “Unfortunately we are aware that in each of the nine boroughs in Cheshire and Merseyside, children are living in poverty which will have a devastating impact on their lives. However, we also know that in each of these areas, great work is happening in our public and voluntary sectors to support these families, and I have been delighted to share some examples of the fantastic work taking place across Cheshire and Merseyside with the Child Poverty Unit during their visit.”

UK’s Asylum Hotel Bill Down 30%, Government Says

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The government spent nearly a third less on hotels to house asylum seekers between April 2024 and March 2025, reports the BBC.

The Home Office’s annual accounts show £2.1bn was spent on hotel accommodation – an average of about £5.77m per day, down from £3bn or £8.3m per day, the previous year. Data obtained by BBC Verify shows the saving has been driven by a reduction in the average nightly cost per person housed, after a government move to use cheaper forms of accommodation and room sharing.

But Dr Peter Walsh, from the Migration Observatory think tank at Oxford University, warned that the surge in small boat crossings seen since March could lead to a renewed reliance on hotels. “I don’t think hotels are going away anytime soon based on current trends,” he said. Hotel accommodation is used when there is no other housing available for asylum seekers, and the government has committed to stop using asylum hotels by the end of this Parliament. There were 32,345 people in asylum hotels at the end of March 2025, up from 29,585 people at the end of June last year, but lower than the total in December.

A senior Home Office source said one of the main factors behind the saving was moving some asylum seekers from hotels into other types of cheaper accommodation. They said the department had prioritised moving families and children into regular housing so they were not living in hotels for long periods of time.

BBC News understands the majority of people moved out of hotels are now living in local housing, or houses in multiple occupation (HMOs), a type of rented accommodation where at least three individuals share the use of a bathroom and kitchen. Most of these properties have been acquired through the government’s contracts with Serco, one of the three companies responsible for asylum accommodation. Some savings have also been made by renegotiating elements of those contracts, which were originally signed by the previous Conservative government.

Officials have previously told MPs that greater room-sharing in hotels has helped reduce the number of sites and per head costs over the past financial year. It is not clear how many people usually share a room, but Home Office minister Angela Eagle has previously said “people can double up or treble up” if rooms are big enough.

The Home Office accounts suggest 273 hotels were in use in March 2024 but that number has now fallen by 71. The average nightly cost per person fell from £162.16 in March 2023 to £118.87 by March 2025, according to BBC Verify’s analysis of official data obtained through a Freedom of Information request. The Home Office’s accounts also show that almost £50m of public money was effectively written off after the Labour government scrapped a Conservative plan to use the RAF Scampton site in Lincolnshire to house asylum seekers. Tens of millions had already been spent on the site when Labour came to power and axed the plans.

The Home office annual report says that decision resulted in a “constructive loss of £48.5m”, but a department source said the site would have been an even more expensive option than hotels, even taking into account the loss incurred. The report also confirmed that £270m paid to Rwanda to help support the country’s economic development was not refunded after the UK government scrapped the Rwanda scheme.

Conservative ministers had planned to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda to deter people from crossing the Channel in small boats. However, the scheme was stalled by legal challenges and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said it led to just four people being removed to the country voluntarily. The Rwandan government said last year that it was “under no obligation” to pay back the £270m after Labour scrapped the deal.

How Bristol Put A Lid On Temporary Accommodation Amid The Housing Crisis

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Councils are piloting ways to tackle the cost of housing a record number of homeless families while we wait for a new strategy from the government, reports The Lead.

There are a record number of homeless households now living in temporary accommodation in England, often in unsuitable hotels or B&Bs, and the spiralling cost of housing them has been pushing local councils closer to the brink of financial ruin. English councils spent almost £2.3 billion on temporary accommodation in 2023/24, while London boroughs alone had to fork out a combined total of £4 million per day. At the end of 2024, there were 128,000 households in temporary accommodation – more than double a decade ago. A number of councils have cited the cost of temporary accommodation as a reason they need financial support from the government.

But amid this national crisis, Bristol City Council is one of a number of local authorities getting creative to turn the tide by reducing costs and getting families out of unsuitable accommodation. The number of people at risk of homelessness in Bristol hasn’t let up, with around 1,700 households in temporary accommodation in the city, compared with 1,600 a year ago. But data acquired under freedom of information laws reveals that the authority managed to reduce its spending in 2024/25 by 7 per cent – from £21.1m to £19.7m.

“Firstly, we’ve reduced our subsidy loss – the cost to the council,” the city’s housing chief councillor Barry Parsons tells The Lead: “But we’ve also made a lot of progress in taking people out of unsuitable accommodation and either providing them with something better or helping them move on into their own home, or preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place, so all three have contributed.” Getting the costs under control has been achieved by a combination of initiatives, including redesigning the council’s homelessness services to focus more on prevention, recommissioning the contracts with private providers to push up standards and drive down costs, and getting people out of hotel and B&Bs by placing them in homes owned by the council or housing associations.

“We’ve made really good progress in reducing our use of hotels,” Parsons says. “At the start of 2024/25, we had 110 families for more than six weeks – we know that a hotel is in no way a place for family life – but by the end of the year, we had reduced that to nine.” This reflects the national picture, as the number of families in B&Bs started to fall in 2024. The council has also been providing financial incentives for private landlords to offer temporary accommodation and move people onto longer-term private rented tenancies.

But the ultimate aim is to reduce the reliance on the private sector altogether.

Next, the authority plans to acquire at least 75 units to use as temporary accommodation and expand a pilot scheme to provide 50 modular units on small pockets of council-owned land that can be relocated in future. But the biggest move of all would be for the council to set up its own registered housing provider, which could save millions each year, subject to a full business case being approved in the autumn. There are already at least five council-owned registered provider companies elsewhere in England, including in Nottingham, Ealing and Newham.

“It’s possible that this company might be able to dramatically increase the supply of temporary social housing we can place people in,” Parsons says.

“I’m incredibly proud of all the work we’re doing, there’s huge amounts of innovation happening here,” he adds. “My hope is that it informs a housing strategy for us and the country as a whole, through those relationships we’ve got with other cities and the government, so that we can take some of these new ideas and really go big with them and have a big impact.”

Why Greater Manchester Police Refuses To Give Life-Saving Overdose Drug To Officers

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MP says police force’s response ‘disappointing’ and reasoning ‘raises serious questions’, reports the Big Issue.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) says it refuses to give its officers the choice to carry naloxone – a drug which can reverse opioid overdoses – because of objections over whether it has really saved lives and a belief officers would not need to use it, while slamming a push to “press naloxone onto UK forces”. Naloxone is a drug, often carried as a nasal spray, which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. GMP is one of just two forces, along with Suffolk Constabulary, where a decision has been taken not to allow police officers or staff to carry naloxone, according to a recent Home Office study – though GMP claims “it is not quite the case we are an outlier”.

As drug deaths reach record levels and synthetic opioids claim lives, Big Issue has been reporting on GMP’s refusal to roll out the drug.

The force had remained tight-lipped about why, explaining it is a “complex” decision. But a letter, seen by Big Issue, has revealed the real reasoning behind the refusal. It claims officers in areas of Greater Manchester with high drug use said “there has not been a single occasion where they would have reached for naloxone had it been available to them”, and that “we believe some UK forces who have trialled naloxone have seen no use of the product during the timeframe”.

Tom Morrison, the Liberal Democrat MP for Cheadle, said that he was “disappointed” that GMP continues to resist offering naloxone to officers on the front line. “The reality is that police officers often arrive at the scene of an overdose before paramedics, and withholding a safe, legal, lifesaving tool in that context raises serious questions”, he said. Morrison called for a well-managed trial to get evidence specific to Manchester, and said other forces had not found the barriers cited by GMP to be insurmountable. After it emerged a trial of naloxone by GMP, promised last year, was cancelled, Morrison said the force had created an expectation it “would be part of the solution to rising opioid harms”. He added: “The current refusal to even trial naloxone on the front line appears at odds with those public commitments.”

Kate Green, the deputy mayor of Greater Manchester, said she “encourages the force to allow its officers to carry naloxone”, continues to keep the matter under “close review”, and remains “in dialogue with the chief constable about it”. Naloxone has been branded a “miracle cure”, waking somebody up from a potentially fatal overdose, and has been credited with cutting opioid deaths by 14% in US states where it has been rolled out. Paramedics in the UK administer thousands of doses of naloxone every month, but as opioid deaths rise the government has led a push to equip frontline police officers with the drug. The details were revealed in a letter from Lee Rawlinson, the force’s chief resources officer, responding to Morrison after he raised the issue on the back of Big Issue reporting.

“We feel our response is entirely proportionate at this time,” Rawlinson wrote. The force argued naloxone would not be an effective weapon against the danger of synthetic opioids such as nitazines, saying GMP’s medical adviser had advised “the level of naloxone required in synthetic opioid cases is likely a much greater dose than officers would carry and the patient would require ongoing careful monitoring by a doctor”. Instead, the letter said that “good basic life support”, delivered with a pocket mask, bag vale mask or face shield, would keep an overdose patient alive without naloxone until ambulance crews arrived. It also said the force had evidence from a team dealing “primarily in target areas of high drug use”, who said in the last year “there has not been a single occasion where they would have reached for naloxone had it been available to them”.

Some 32 forces carry naloxone – meaning some police officers or staff are carrying naloxone, either full time or as a trial. A further seven have committed to rolling out naloxone, while a further five have agreed to implement it or agreed to a pilot. It is just Greater Manchester, along with Suffolk, listed by the Home Office as forces where a decision has been taken not to allow police officers or staff to carry naloxone. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the decision whether to carry naloxone is up to an officer. Both GMP and Suffolk make naloxone available in custody – though GMP say this is administered by healthcare professionals rather than police officers.

“We believe some UK forces who have trialled naloxone have seen no use of the product during the timeframe,” GMP’s letter said, citing a difficulty in clarifying whether naloxone had actually saved lives when used by police. “A number of factors may have contributed to the ‘positive’ result and therefore we believe the data is statistically subjective and not clinical based,” Rawlinson wrote. Between June 2019 and December 2024, police officers used naloxone 1,232 times. South Wales Police said its officers had used it 134 times in situations they deemed life-threatening. Morrison said GMP’s justification “risks overlooking the unpredictable nature of overdoses, including synthetic opioids like nitazenes, which can act quickly and require an immediate response”, and that any response which stabilised a patient “could make the difference between life and death”.

Innovative Trial Could Shape Homelessness Support

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A Kent woman who took part in a trial where people supported by homeless charities are given a substantial sum of money to spend as they wish said the funds helped her reconnect with her children, reports the BBC.

The Centre for Homelessness Impact is leading the research into the effect of granting participants a personalised budget, on top of existing homelessness support. Sarah, from Dover, was among those to take part in the trial funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

Supported by Canterbury-based homeless charity Porchlight, she said it was the reason she now sees her children and grandchildren more. Sarah, who suffered with addiction issues, said: “I lost my kids a long time ago…Porchlight helped me get a place of my own and when I was awarded this money, I was able to kit it out. I could choose what I wanted, I could make it feel like home. Getting the money has allowed me to do the final bits to my new home that mean I get to see them [my kids] and my grandkids more.”

This trial compared outcomes between people who have received typical homelessness support alongside financial assistance and those only given the standard assistance. Guillermo Rodríguez-Guzmán, director of evidence at the Centre for Homelessness Impact, said it was “really important” to have the evidence from the trial as he said the approach had been “controversial”.

It is the first time a series of trials on this scale has ever been carried out, with interim findings expected in the autumn and full results likely to be published in late 2026.

Porchlight’s chief executive Tom Neumark said the trial could be significant for the future of homelessness support. “Each person’s journey into homelessness is different, so it makes sense to give them the means to rebuild their life in a way that works for them,” he said. “This trial allowed people to do that, and from what we can see it worked.”

This trial is part of a larger three-year programme commissioned by the MHCLG, which has allocated £15m to testing eight novel interventions for homelessness and rough sleeping.

HMOs Could Be Used To Help Aid Liverpool’s Homelessness Crisis

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More than 1,100 people are currently living in B&Bs and hotels across the city with nowhere permanent to call home, reports the Liverpool Echo.

Houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) could be used by Liverpool Council to address its continuing homelessness crisis. With an “unprecedented demand” on housing services across the city, the local authority is reviewing its approach to rough sleeping and homelessness. Liverpool’s trend of rough sleeping ticked upward throughout 2024 when compared to the same period 12 months earlier. The average number of people seen each night rough sleeping between April and September 2024 was 30, an increase on the average of 22 people seen per night over the same period in 2023.

New figures released by the city council have revealed how in one month along this year, 166 people were seen by the Liverpool Assertive Outreach and Response Service “engaging in a street lifestyle.” A report to go to cabinet on the new homelessness strategy said the number of rough sleepers has increased again, which could link to the warmer weather.  When the strategy was first unveiled last year, the local authority said it wanted to make homelessness brief, rare and non-recurring. Its night assessment hub has continued to be a vital tool in helping people off the streets.

Throughout winter, in partnership with the Whitechapel Centre, Liverpool Council provides a temporary centre for those seeking accommodation. Each year in preparation for winter, the local authority works with partners to ensure there are a range of additional solutions in place during the worst of the winter, including ‘sit-up’ spaces and block-booked hotel rooms.

The scheme, which operates from 8pm to 8am for 30 people, was extended throughout the summer to the end of this month to allow the council “to find solutions for people in an off-the-street setting.” The city said during April, its Always Help Available phone received 2,664 inbound phone calls – a similar number to the previous month.

Issues also remain around those in temporary accommodation. As of June 1, there are 1,635 households in temporary accommodation, with around 1,100 in B&B/hotels, and limited permanent move-on options available at present.

The document said: “There has been unprecedented demand on the council’s housing solutions service in recent years and an increase in homeless presentations, with the service receiving an increase in requests for help and assistance from those at risk of homelessness. This is due, in part, to an increase in no fault evictions, family and friends no longer being able to accommodate and affordability concerns as rents increase.”

In a bid to release pressure on the service, Liverpool Council is to use a range of temporary accommodation services including the use of Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMO’s), studio flats and a range of properties to meet the bedroom needs of homeless households, which will be dispersed across the city ensuring offers that are made are suitable having regard to the suitability requirements set out in legislation and statutory guidance. Documents which the cabinet will be asked to endorse said it will not hold any leases, tenancies or licences of the properties, rather procure a service providing a minimum number of properties with all property and tenancy related functions delivered by the provider with the opportunity to bring more properties on board as required.

Black People In England Four Times As Likely To Face Homelessness

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Black people are also less likely than white people to get social housing and can face ‘overt racism’ from private landlords, reports The Guardian.

Black people in England are almost four times as likely to face homelessness as white people and substantially less likely to get social housing, according to the first major study into homelessness and racism in more than two decades. A three-year research project by academics at Heriot-Watt University found that ethnicity affects a person’s risk of homelessness, even when controlling for factors such as geography, poverty and home ownership rates. They recorded evidence of people resorting to changing their name, accent and hairstyle to try to gain access to housing and other services, and being told by housing officers to be grateful because “you don’t have this back in your country”.

The report’s lead author, Prof Suzanne Fitzpatrick, said: “There are long-term forms of structural disadvantage, rooted in historic racism, which are impacting on risks of homelessness. But the data indicates present-day discrimination is also playing a role. We heard reports of really overt racism from private landlords – refusing to house people because they’re black, particularly if they’re refugees, or imposing rules or restrictions on them that they don’t impose on other tenants.”

The team from the university’s Institute for Social Policy, Housing and Equalities Research analysed 750,000 household outcome records from official homelessness data from 2019-20 to 2021-22 and found that 10% of black families in the statutory homelessness system gained access to social housing, compared with 24% of white families. They also found 11% of migrant-headed households accessed social housing, compared with 17% of all households. Analysis of English Housing Survey data found that Pakistani-Bangladeshi households were more than seven times more likely and black households six times more likely to be overcrowded than white households.

Data obtained via freedom of information requests by Shelter found black-headed households were more likely to be stuck in temporary accommodation (TA) for long periods of time. They found 43% of black-headed households in TA had been there for more than two years, compared with 25% of white-headed households. Almost a fifth (18%) of black-headed households in TA had been there for more than five years, compared with 8% of white-headed households.

Mairi MacRae, the director of campaigns and policy at the charity, said inequality “remains hardwired into our housing system”. She said: “The evidence is clear – devastatingly, Black people are more likely to become homeless and less likely to have a safe and secure home. Racial stereotyping, culturally insensitive communication and unjust treatment from housing officers, as well as excessive questioning around eligibility in the application process, leave Black people feeling unheard, neglected and dehumanised.”

Shelter’s separate report, My Colour Speaks Before Me, describes people’s experiences of stereotyping, judgment and stigma, and facing an “uneven burden of proof”, with excessive questioning and heightened scrutiny when applying for social housing. Black social housing applicants reported being treated more poorly than white applicants, facing longer delays and receiving support that was not culturally aware.

One of the report’s 16 peer researchers, Uchenna Eneke, 43, spent 15 years living in a one-bedroom flat with her children while bidding for a social home in east London, and struggled to get basic maintenance repairs or speak to housing officers. “It makes you question everything – is it because I’m black? Is it because I’m a woman? Is it because I’m a single mum? I was seeing people getting rehoused around me, and I came before them,” she said. “Especially with a name like mine. Sometimes I had to change my name to an English name – I used to call myself Gillian – just to get through to speak to someone.”

Her children, now 17 and 10, spent most of their childhoods sharing a room with their mother, and one developed chronic rhinitis due to persistent mould in the property. “I tried asking for help but nothing happened. You just keep to yourself, keep your head down, don’t get your kids taken off you. I ended up having a bit of a nervous breakdown,” she said. She now volunteers with Shelter and advocates on behalf of other people struggling with housing. “We need the laws to change because people are going crazy. People are losing their lives, losing their families, losing their jobs,” she said. “Imagine someone being homeless but still having a job at the same time. That’s not normal.”

Fitzpatrick said their research was designed to “fill a longstanding gap in knowledge about race and homelessness in the UK”, particularly after the widely condemned Sewell report on racial disparity in 2021, which made little reference to housing. She said their recommendations included using the private rented sector landlord ombudsman proposed in the renter’s rights bill to tackle racism by landlords, and rejecting ethnicity-blind approaches in housing departments.

“It’s really unacceptable that people who are already in a crisis situation are sometimes traumatised by their treatment at the hands of local authority homelessness officers that are there to assist them,” Fitzpatrick said. “If you’ve got people coming into a system with structural disadvantage, you have to be aware of that.”