Rough sleeping

When most people think of a homeless person they tend to think of someone sleeping rough on the streets. Sleeping rough is a dangerous and traumatising experience^[1]. People who sleep rough are 35 times more likely to commit suicide than the general population ^[2].

It is difficult to get an absolute figure for the number of people sleeping rough. One reason for this is that, in order to protect themselves, many rough sleepers hide themselves away in places where they might be difficult to find and this is especially true for women. 44 per cent of current rough sleepers surveyed by Crisis reported that they had not had any contact with a rough sleepers’ team in the past month.^[3]

Devolution has lead to a divergence in both homelessness legislation and the way in which homelessness statistics are gathered. There are also particularly large numbers of rough sleepers in London. The following sections are therefore divided into England, London, Scotland and Wales.

England

In 1998, the Government's first snapshot street count of rough sleepers in England, counted 1,850 people sleeping rough on one night . By 2002, that number was 585, a significant reduction of around two thirds. This substantial fall was achieved as a result of the Government and the voluntary sector working together. However, between 2003 and 2009 progress stalled, as the counts hovered around the 500 mark.

These Government figures only tell part of the story and homelessness agencies accross England often report seeing many more rough sleepers than the official figures record. In recognition of this, the Coalition Government has recently been overhauling the way it counts rough sleepers in an attempt to make it more accurate. The new methodology consists of snapshot street counts and estimates by local authorities. There has also been a broadening of the definition of what constitutes a rough sleeper.

This new methodology was first used between 1 October and 30 November 2010 and suggested that 1,768 people sleep rough on any one night^[4], with the a large proportion (415) being in London. Outside London, the largest concentrations of rough sleepers in England are found in Cornwall, 65; Herefordshire, 42; Bradford, 23; Maidstone, 27 and Peterborough and Exeter, both 21.

However, it should be noted that these figures still fall well short of what agencies report. In London alone, nearly 4000 people were reported sleeping rough during 2010/11^[5].

London

Rough sleeping, as with homelessness in general, is a particular problem in London. As a result of campaigning by Crisis and others, the Mayor of London is committed to ending rough sleeping by 2012, and the Coalition Government have indicated their support for this target.

Rough sleeping on the rise

When an individual is contacted by outreach teams or other services working with rough sleepers in London, their details are entered onto a database (CHAIN)^[6]. According to CHAIN, 3975 people slept rough at some point in London during 2010/11, an increase of 8 per cent on the previous year's total of 3673 and of more than a thousand since 2005/06. These figures are also considerably higher than the Government's official figure of 415.

CHAIN also tells us that:

59 per cent of rough sleepers in London are new, 27 per cent have been rough sleeping for two or more years and 13 per cent have returned to rough sleeping after a gap of a year or more.
87 per cent are male, 72 per cent are white.
59 per cent are aged between 25 and 45 years with only 7 per cent under 25 and 35 per cent over 45.
Many have one or more support needs - 53 per cent alcohol, 39 per cent drugs, 38 per cent mental health.
41 per cent have been in prison at some point, 13 per cent in care and 6 per cent in the armed forces.
22 per cent are from EU A8 and A2 countries and 2 per cent were from Eritrea. For more information see 'Homelessness among different groups'.

Scotland

In 2001, a major report by the Scottish Executive found that in a two week period, there were as many as 500 people who had slept rough for at least one night ^[7]. These figures were collected by a survey of projects and services working with homeless people across Scotland. The same report found that:

Over 80 per cent of rough sleepers were male.
45 per cent were aged between 25 and 40 years.
25 per cent were under 24 years old.
Around 1/3 were in Glasgow and another 1/3 were in Edinburgh.

By October 2003, the same survey found that the number of people sleeping rough over a two week period had reduced to 328.^[8]This survey is no longer carried out, however, local authorities in Scotland do collect more detailed data on people applying for homelessness assistance than their English counterparts. In 2009/10, 296 of those who went to their local authority for homelessness assistance reported their previous housing situation as ‘long term roofless'.^[9]

Wales

In 2007 and 2008 the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) asked local authorities to carry out rough sleeper counts for the first time. These estimated that, on the night of the counts, there were 138 people sleeping rough in 2007 and 124 in 2008^.[10]

However, these were judged to be an underestimate, as information from other sources, such as outreach services and other agencies, suggested that in Wales: