Homeless charities have blasted the government’s “shameful” record on housing, after nearly 1,000 people died while homeless in Britain last year.
Official figures reveal that 741 people died while homeless in England and Wales during 2021, and another 250 people in Scotland. The damning stats take Britain’s homeless death total to 991 last year alone, and back up to pre-pandemic levels.
Nearly two in five deaths were related to drug poisoning, while another 13 per cent were suicides, up by a third in a year.
And the average age of death of those facing homelessness was a shocking 43 years old for women, and 45 years for men - three decades shorter than those who have a permanent roof over their heads.
Homeless deaths have risen in every region since 2013. London and the North West had the highest numbers of homeless deaths registered in 2021, with the capital making up a fifth of the total.
The Tories’ 2019 manifesto pledged to “end the blight of rough sleeping by the end of the next Parliament” - yet homeless has surged in the face of surging rents and a housing crisis.
These sobering figures come as homeless charity Crisis says it is bracing for an “incredibly busy” winter. From late December onwards, the charity will be providing hotel accommodation in London to hundreds of people who would otherwise be sleeping rough over Christmas.
The charity is warning that demand for its services is increasing and shows no sign of abating as rents have risen at their fastest rate for 16 years across England, while in Wales less than one per cent of privately rented homes are affordable to people on housing benefit.
Matt Downie, Crisis Chief Executive, said: “There is no excuse for this shameless suffering. For years we have been calling on the UK Government to expand the safeguarding system used to investigate the deaths of vulnerable adults to include everyone who has died while street homeless. This must be acted upon so we can learn lessons from these tragic deaths.”
He urged the government to stop the deaths by boosting housing benefit and council housing: “We desperately need more social homes and for the UK Government to invest in housing benefit so it covers the true cost of rents. Only decisive action will ensure everyone has a safe place to call home and prevent more loss of life in the future.”
Rick Henderson, chief executive of the national charity Homeless Link, branded the rise in homeless deaths as “shameful”: “Each and every death of a person experiencing homelessness is a tragedy, and a clear sign that they have been failed by the systems that are designed to support them.”
And he called for those in power to “redouble” their efforts to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place. The figures mainly cover people who were sleeping rough or using emergency accommodation like homeless shelters.
A government spokesperson said "good progress" had been made towards tackling rough sleeping, but added: “These statistics are another reminder that there is still much more to be done...We are providing £2 billion over the next three years to tackle homelessness.”
