UK

‘Serious risk’ to life this winter from rise in rough sleeping, campaigners warn

Craig Williams
Tue 29 October 2024

Everyone Home Collective has written to the Scottish Government calling for action to address an “accelerating and avoidable rough sleeping crisis" (Image: Newsquest)


Lives are being placed at “serious risk” because a lack of accommodation is forcing increasing numbers of homeless people to sleep rough, campaigners have warned.

Everyone Home Collective (EHC), a group of about 40 charitable and academic organisations focused on housing and homelessness, has written to the Scottish Government calling for action to address an “accelerating and avoidable rough sleeping crisis.”

They pointed to Scottish Government figures showing 2,931 people had slept rough before making a homelessness application between April 2023 and March 2024, up from 2,425 the year before and higher than the pre-pandemic figure, the group said.


The EHC blamed the rise on the housing emergency and use of “unsuitable temporary accommodation” in Scotland, and said the situation was being worsened by the cost-of-living crisis, austerity policies and “inadequate social security”.

The EHC said: “Every person who is forced to sleep rough is one too many.

“Being left with no choice but to sleep in doorways and tunnels and parks severely damages people’s health and wellbeing, risks their safety and their lives, strips them of dignity and affects our wider communities too.

“In Scotland in 2024, no one should be left with no choice but to sleep on the street, and we emphasise that forcing people to do so at any time of year and particularly during winter puts their life at risk.”

The EHC has called on the Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) to investigate a potential breach of government obligations to protect the fundamental right to life, under the 1998 Human Rights Act.

It said the lack of emergency accommodation “is putting people’s fundamental right to life at risk”, and pointed out that the Government had a duty to protect life where they know – or should know – that it is at risk.

The campaign group also pointed to a doubling in the number of households becoming homeless from supported accommodation, which rose from 932 in 2022-23 to 1,978 in 2023-4.

It said this increase was largely due to asylum seekers who had been granted leave to remain in the UK being forced to sleep rough because of a lack of UK Government “transition support”.

In a letter to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, the group said this situation was “contributing to very significant pressure on housing and homelessness services”, and asked for more support for Scottish local authorities to ensure a “smooth transition from asylum accommodation to settled housing”.

Sabir Zazai, chief executive of the Scottish Refugee Council – which is a member of EHC – said: “Homelessness is an assault on dignity, social inclusion and the right to life.

“No one in Scotland, including people who have fled violence and persecution to seek safety here, should ever have to sleep on the streets.

“The Home Office must support local councils to ensure everyone transitioning out of asylum accommodation has a safe place to stay, while all governments have a duty to respond urgently to help the thousands of lives put at risk as a result of this accelerating crisis.”

Housing secretary Paul McLennan said: “The Scottish Government is clear that everyone should live in a safe, warm, affordable, high quality and energy efficient home that meets their needs.

“Local authorities have a legal duty to provide accommodation to anyone at risk of homelessness and nobody should have to sleep rough in Scotland.

“We are making available record funding of more than £14 billion to councils in 2024-25 to deliver a range of services, including homelessness services – a real-terms increase of 4.3% compared to the previous year.

“Over and above the funding for homelessness provided through the local government settlement, we have a £100 million multi-year ending homelessness together fund for specific action to prevent homelessness, end rough sleeping and reduce temporary accommodation use.”

Professor Angela O’Hagan, SHRC chairwoman, said: “The commission is concerned that persistent and systemic poverty in Scotland are linked to human rights denials for too many people, including the struggle to achieve basic rights such as adequate housing, healthcare and food.

“The Everyone Home Collective is raising an important challenge about the adequacy of plans to provide for the right to adequate shelter this winter for everyone who needs it.”

She added: “As Scotland’s human rights watchdog we will continue to press all those who bear responsibility for human rights in Scotland to take a human rights-based approach to developing urgent policies and practices, to ensure that everyone in Scotland can live a life of human dignity, including a safe place to live.”

The EHC was issuing its call to action at the start of an annual national two-day homelessness conference in Perth.

Sadiq Khan warns London rough sleeping 'will get worse before it gets better' at emergency summit

Noah Vickers
Tue 29 October 2024 a

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan with Big Issue vendor Sid during a campaign visit earlier this year to St John's Church in Waterloo (Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire)


Sadiq Khan has warned that rough sleeping in London will “get worse before it gets better”, as he pursues his goal of ending street homelessness in the capital by 2030.

The mayor was on Tuesday preparing to convene an emergency rough sleeping summit at City Hall, and announced that he would be investing £4.8m to help previous rough sleepers stay off the streets for good.

The funding will reach people staying in 3,500 supported housing units across the capital, and will go towards giving them advice and support with applying for benefits and using public services.

Mr Khan promised in his re-election manifesto earlier this year to “set London on a course to end rough sleeping by 2030”, by “working closely with a new Labour government to tackle the root causes of homelessness”.

But despite the mayor’s party having been in power in Westminster for almost four months now, City Hall said that Mr Khan believes “the scale of the [rough sleeping] challenge and the legacy of years of underinvestment from the previous Government in housing and support” means the situation has the potential to deteriorate further, at least initially.

The mayor will be joined at Tuesday’s summit by the Bethnal Green and Stepney MP Rushanara Ali, recently appointed as minister for homelessness and rough sleeping.

“We know we can bring down rough sleeping – it’s exactly what was done during the pandemic, and also two decades ago,” said Mr Khan.

“However, with rough sleeping in London and across the country on the rise, the reality is that the situation will get worse before it gets better.

“Today I am bringing together ministers, boroughs and leaders from the NHS, local government, homelessness charities and former rough sleepers, so we can work hand-in-hand to tackle this growing emergency. Providing funding to get vulnerable people off the streets and helping them to start rebuilding their lives is at the centre of our plan.

“There’s so much more we need to do at all levels of Government and wider society – as we work together to build a better, fairer, more prosperous London for everyone.”

Tuesday’s summit will launch a “call for evidence” that will inform the mayor’s “plan of action” to reach his 2030 ‘zero rough sleeping’ target. The plan, due to be launched next year, will establish “a shared mission for ending rough sleeping, including the scale of funding required and the best mechanisms for achieving this ambition”, City Hall said.

A record 11,993 people were recorded sleeping rough in London between April 2023 and March 2024. The figure represents a rise of almost 50 per cent compared with the situation Mr Khan inherited when he became mayor in 2016 - as there were 8,096 people recorded sleeping rough in Boris Johnson’s last year in City Hall, between April 2015 and March 2016.

Mr Khan has blamed the increase on the Conservatives’ policies while they were in power nationally. According to Government ‘snapshot’ data - which provides an estimate of the number of people sleeping rough across England on a single night in autumn each year - there was a 120 per cent increase in the number of rough sleepers between 2010 and 2023.

City Hall points out that, at £36.3 million, the mayor’s rough sleeping budget in 2023/24 is now more than four times the £8.45 million a year it was when Mr Khan took office in 2016.

According to the mayor’s team, around 17,600 people have been helped off the capital’s streets over the last eight years through the mayor’s services alone, with 75 per cent staying off the streets for good.

Filmmaker Lorna Tucker-McGarvey, who slept on the streets of London for 18 months as a teenager, said: “I strongly believe that we can end rough sleeping with the right support, so I’m really pleased that the Mayor of London has convened today’s emergency rough sleeping summit.

“It is powerful to have a seat at the table alongside others with lived experience of homelessness, and I hope our stories will drive forward the goal of ending rough sleeping in London by 2030.”