20,000 of you tell the PM: a future free from homelessness starts now

Yesterday, we delivered our open letter to Kier Starmer – signed by more than 20,000 supporters – right to the heart of Government at No10 Downing Street.  

We’ve called on Keir Starmer and the UK Government to build a future free from homelessness.   

This is a huge show of people power - all of us coming together to tell the UK Government we want to see lasting change in our country. A country where everyone has the foundation of a secure home.  

A country where we are healthier, our children do better in school, our communities are more stable, and more of us can achieve our full potential to support the economy to grow.  

We were joined by Ray, Manoel and Isra, people with lived experience of homelessness, who helped shape this campaign and have been with us throughout.  

Ray said:
"We are stronger when we stand together. Thank you. Coming to Downing Street is an experience I'll never forget. It shows we can get politicians to listen. 

“Here's my message to Kier Starmer: housing is a right not a fight, so stop talking and start building." 

The Government has promised a plan to ‘get us back on track to ending homelessness’.   

Together, we’ve made it clear that a plan that’s serious about ending homelessness must:  

• Make more homes genuinely affordable  

• Make sure people experiencing homelessness get proper support  

• Prevent homelessness before it happens   

Your support shows the strength of public demand for change. Together, we’ve made our message loud and clear: let’s end homelessness. 

But we haven’t seen their plan yet. That’s why we’ll keep the pressure on until the Prime Minister publishes a plan that matches the scale of the challenge.  

The full text of the letter is as follows:

Dear Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer:

A safe, stable home is the foundation of a healthy life – and a thriving Britain.

But right now, rising living costs and a shortage of truly affordable homes are pushing more of us into homelessness than ever before. And when we seek help, too many of us are being let down by overstretched, underfunded services that should protect us.

Successive governments have failed to fix this. Yours can be different. We believe you can end homelessness once and for all.

Record numbers of us are stuck for years in temporary accommodation that harms our health. Including over 164,000 children in England growing up in unsafe conditions, restricting life chances and trapping them in poverty.

People are forced to sleep on friends’ sofas, fearing they’ve outstayed their welcome. And thousands of us are left to face the danger of sleeping on the streets.

So we, the undersigned, are calling on you to deliver a bold plan to end homelessness once and for all.

This means building social rent homes and raising housing benefit so people can afford their rent. It means ensuring that everyone can get the right support when they need it.

And it means preventing homelessness before it happens by fixing our welfare system and making sure public services work together.

Your plan for change and tackling homelessness go hand in hand.

You can build a country where we are healthier, our children do better in school, our communities are more stable, and more of us can achieve our full potential to support the economy to grow.

Everyone needs the foundation of a secure home from which to build a healthy life. This is your chance to give us the real change we need.

A future free from homelessness starts now. Are you ready to lead the way?

Yours sincerely,

The undersigned