Crisis reacts as number of people living on London’s streets increases by 11%

Following recent announcement to lower affordable housing targets in the capital, Crisis urges ministers to focus on social housing and publish an ambitious new homelessness strategy

New data out today show that between July and September 2025 an average of 23 people every day were forced to sleep rough for the first time in London.

The new figures from the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) also show that:

• The number of people living on the streets in London has reached 759 – an 11% rise on the same period a year before, and the second highest number on record
• The number of people living on the streets has more than doubled (102%) from the same period 10 years ago (July 2015-September 2015)
• 4,711 people were forced to sleep rough. While this is a 1% decrease from the same period last year, this is the second highest number since records began
• The number of people sleeping rough for the first time was 2,116, down 10% compared to the same time the year before

As private rents continue to rise, benefits fall short of housing costs and the supply of social and affordable housing decreases, more and more people are struggling to find somewhere safe and stable to live. Although London councils are now spending almost £5 million per day to house people in temporary accommodation, near record numbers of people are still falling through the gaps – and experiencing the most dangerous form of homelessness.

Last week, charities expressed concern after the UK Government and City Hall announced reduced affordable housing targets for developers in London. While the aim of the policy is to increase overall housebuilding rates, Crisis has emphasised that previous, similar approaches to reducing targets and relying on faith in market forces have not produced the required rates of new homes for social rent.

Responding to today’s figures, Matt Downie, Chief Executive at Crisis, said:

“Tragically, we are now used to seeing an average of 23 people forced to sleep rough in London for the first time every single day. But what we’re also seeing is more people being forced to sleep on the streets for longer periods of time. The situations people are facing are becoming more desperate, the barriers to moving away from the streets more difficult to overcome.

“We have to do more to escape this pattern of poverty and destitution. We desperately need to start building the right kind of homes, and coordinate and fund the right kind of support.

“In the next few months the UK Government can have an immediate impact. In the Budget, ministers can bring housing benefit back in line with the true cost of local rents, and they can also publish an ambitious new homelessness strategy that will show how we will deliver new social homes. Both would show they are determined to stop people facing the threats and uncertainty of another cold night out on the streets, and offer the different, more positive future of a safe and stable home.”

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Notes to editors

About CHAIN

Today, Friday 31 October 2025, the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) statistics have been published, showing levels of rough sleeping across London for the period July to September 2025.

Conducted by outreach teams in regular contact with people on the streets, CHAIN is considered the most thorough approach to collecting data on people sleeping rough.

In the CHAIN reports, people sleeping rough are grouped into three categories:

New rough sleepers	Those who had not been contacted by outreach teams rough sleeping before the period
Living on the streets	Those who have had a high number of contacts over 3 weeks or more which suggests they are living on the streets
Intermittent rough sleepers	People who were seen rough sleeping before the period began at some point, and contacted in the period - but not regularly enough to be ‘living on the streets’.

Read and download the latest CHAIN figures here: https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/chain-reports

Greater London Authority’s plan for tackling rough sleeping

The Mayor of London has committed to working with the Westminster Government to set London on a course to end rough sleeping by 2030. A new Rough Sleeping Plan of Action will set the framework for achieving this goal.

Read more about the Plan of Action here.