You are here: Home » How you can help » Campaign » No one turned away

No one turned away

What's the problem?

It is shocking that in the 21st century there is no right to shelter - a single homeless person can approach their council for help and still be turned away to sleep on the streets.

Most single homeless people are not considered to be in ‘priority need’ for social housing, meaning that the council has no duty to find them accommodation.

Although they should get meaningful advice and assistance from their council, Crisis' recent research shows too often single homeless people are given little help or turned away with none at all.

The consequences of councils failing to intervene early can be devastating and can cause people to fall deeper into homelessness. The answer is to change the law so that all homeless people get the help they need.

What is Crisis calling for?

We demand that:

The Government strengthen the law so that no one is forced to sleep rough
All single homeless people have the right to receive written advice, real assistance and emergency accommodation when they need it

We know that our campaign is working - in December last year ministers announced £20m of funding to help councils tackle single homelessness.

It is a big step forward that the Government now accepts there is a problem and wants to tackle it. But they need to do more and we must not stop our campaigning.

We know from experience that money is not enough; we need a legal duty on local authorities to provide the advice and assistance that single homeless people need.