This research shows the scale of hidden homelessness in Great Britain, and reveals the experiences of people sleeping in cars, staying in sheds or garages, or sofa surfing with friends, family, acquaintances or even strangers because they have nowhere else to go. These less seen, but no less impactful, forms of homelessness lie below the more visible tip of the iceberg of the housing and homelessness crisis, underrepresented in public narratives and official statistics.
Key findings:
- The precarious and transitory nature of hidden homelessness situations, with 40% of participants reporting having moved over six times within a typical month.
- The most common type of sofa-surfing was with family or friends (65%); however, four in ten (42%) had stayed with an acquaintance and 29% had been forced to sofa surf with a stranger. A large majority (83%) of participants who had experienced sofa surfing also spent time in other forms of hidden homelessness.
- Other forms of hidden homelessness included sleeping in tents or sheds (67%), commercial/industrial premises (57%), abandoned buildings (47%), in indoor public spaces (48%), cars, vans or boats (42%), and public toilets (27%).
- People were forced into unsafe and dangerous situations. Participants reported having to stay with people they were not comfortable with (60%), having to take drugs or consume alcohol in order to keep staying somewhere (51%), experiencing violence and/or abuse during hidden homelessness (51%) and feeling afraid for their lives (58%).
- The survey revealed stark impacts of hidden homelessness, with 81% reporting impacts on their mental health, 72% on their physical health, and 81% on their sleep.
- Experiences for women were disproportionately more dangerous and traumatic. The number of women who responded to the survey was small (37), but the findings suggest that women moved on more frequently than men and relied more on sofa surfing, including more cases of staying with acquaintances, strangers, and people they did not feel comfortable with. A higher proportion of women than men spoke of violence or abuse, sexual assault, and feeling afraid for their lives during experiences of hidden homelessness.
Reference:
Sutton-Hamilton, C., Sanders, B., Leith, G. & Dore, A. (2025) "I felt invisible”: Revealing the reality behind hidden homelessness. London: Crisis.