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Three-quarters of UK public say there is a homelessness crisis, charity finds
Three-quarters of the public agree there is a homelessness crisis in the UK, a charity has found, as it called for action in the first 100 days of the next government.
Research from St Mungo’s showed that 76% of British citizens agree there is a homelessness crisis currently happening in the UK, with over half (52%) saying the situation in their area has got worse in the past few years.
The data also showed that 78% of British citizens think the next government should make ending homelessness a priority.
The research for St Mungo’s was carried out online by Opinion Matters, a market research company, between 12 and 14 June among a panel of 2,006 nationally representative UK respondents, aged 18 and over.
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St Mungo’s called for the next government to make ending the homelessness crisis a political priority and for charities and support services to be saved from “a financial cliff-edge”.
Key government funding for homelessness services is due to end in April 2025. This includes the Rough Sleeping Initiative, which is dedicated to supporting people off the streets.
If this funding is cut, St Mungo’s said, around a third of the projects that the charity delivers with local authorities may be unable to continue.
Over 37,000 people have signed an open letter urging the next government to extend the funding.
According to the charity, homelessness is at “an all-time high”, with close to 4,000 people sleeping on the streets across England every night and almost 80,000 households homeless or at risk of it.
St Mungo’s said its outreach teams were “struggling to respond” to the increasing number of people on the streets, and its hostels were “at capacity”.
The charity called for the next government to prioritise the following in its first 100 days: extend and increase homelessness funding; protect renters from homelessness; align benefits to help people into housing; support an integrated approach to homelessness addressing unmet health needs; and boost the deliver of affordable and social housing.
Emma Haddad, chief executive of St Mungo’s, said: “We want to work constructively with whoever forms the next government to bring about fundamental change to a system that is failing.
“It is possible to prevent homelessness with the right political choices. At the moment, we see the fall-out every day: people who have no choice but to sleep rough, people in work who cannot afford their rent, people who are trapped in temporary accommodation.”
The three biggest political parties in England have all made commitments on homelessness in their general election manifestos.
The Liberal Democrats promised to “end homelessness within the next parliament”. Labour promised a cross-government strategy, while the Conservatives promised a continuation of their current programmes.
In government, Labour would also “immediately abolish Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions” and deliver “the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation”.
Inside Housing approached St Mungo’s for more detail on the sample size of the polling.
More than 50 organisations, including Homeless Link, the National Housing Federation, Crisis and Shelter, have signed a letter calling on whoever forms the next government to take “urgent action” to reduce homelessness and rough sleeping.
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