Rough figures

Government figures released in late February show England rough sleeping figures have reached a record high. The numbers, gathered by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, reveal the number of people sleeping rough on a single night in England in November 2025 rose to a record high of 4,793, compared to 4,667 for the same period lin 2024. Bonnie Williams, Chief Executive of Housing Justice, commented: “The underlying pressures that drive homelessness have not disappeared and while rough sleeping is the most visible form of homelessness, it is only part of the picture. The record numbers of households in temporary accommodation show just how many families are living in limbo.” The figure tallied in November 2025 is 42 more people than England’s previous record high in 2017.

Footy fundraiser

The Street Soccer Foundation, a UK charity using football to help tackle youth homelessness, announced the start of the 2026 season of its flagship The Big Goal campaign in late February. The Big Goal is a national social impact campaign, directly funding places on the charity’s Street Soccer Academy through a fundraising football tournament, an initiative which enables young people experiencing homelessness, unemployment or disadvantage to access a 12-week programme combining football coaching with personal development, mentoring and employability support. This year, 60 businesses and organisations have signed up to take part in the campaign. In the previous two editions, The Big Goal has raised more than £250,000 to support the expansion of the Street Soccer Academy programme across the UK. The football fixtures take place over April and May, before culminating in a final held at St George’s Park (home to England’s national men's, women's and para football teams) on 11 June.

© the Pavement
Festival news: One Roof, Old Diorama Arts Centre's (ODAC) jam-packed arts programme for artists with lived experience of homelessness, held its annual two‑week festival from 19th to 30th January, running Mondays to Fridays. This year’s festival, titled Bricks and Mortar, provided guests with a mix of arts workshops interwoven with mental health and wellbeing sessions, alongside an open studio. Artists worked on numerous projects, both individual and collective, before presenting works at the festival’s closing ceremony exhibition at ODAC, London on 27 February. Artworks including paintings and films were on show to visitors, alongside speeches by the artists and performances for One Roof’s regular scratch nights – nights dedicated to providing space for artists with lived experience of homelessness to present new works. 

Hypocrisy corner

A London philanthropist, claiming to be committed to solving homelessness in the capital, moved to evict hundreds of people from their homes recently. In late February, London Centric learned that Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital business planned to remove hundreds of Londoners – including some who were marking the holy month of Ramadan – from their homes. The mass “no-fault” evictions of private tenants, which sources say are scheduled to be handily finished before the government’s pesky Renters’ Rights Act comes into effect, are taking place on an unprecedented scale. The evictions are going ahead regardless of whether the residents are up-to-date with their rent or have kept the property in good condition. Aziz, who recently moved to low-tax Abu Dhabi, runs Criterion Capital alongside other members of his family and has courted controversy over recent years for the business’s landlord practices, which include trying to shut down historic London cinemas and renting properties to tax-evading American candy stores (currently blighting London’s West End). 

Temporary pain

The Local Government Association (LGA) has projected the cost to councils of providing temporary accommodation for homeless people in England will more than double by 2029–30 to almost £4bn. According to the Guardian, the LGA also found that the annual cost to councils of temporary accommodation was set to grow by 65% in the next five years, rising from nearly £360m to £595m. Since 2017–18, local authorities across England had spent almost £1.5bn more on temporary accommodation than had been reimbursed in housing benefit from the government. That figure is predicted to jump to £3.9bn in the next four years, the LGA said. Tom Hunt, the chair of the LGA’s inclusive growth committee and leader of Sheffield city council, spelled out the alarming financial gaps local authorities face: “Councils are caught in a vicious cycle of ever-increasing temporary accommodation costs versus static rates they receive back to cover their costs.”

SWEPt up

New findings by the Museum of Homelessness show homeless people continue to be excluded from life-saving provision during extreme weather. On 5 March 2026, the Museum of Homelessness released the second edition of its investigation Severe Weather Emergency 2022–2024, which scrutinises how councils and services are adapting to increasingly extreme weather. The investigation found, among other revelations, that a form of gatekeeping by local authorities was common practice, with 42% of councils using a verification system as a pre-condition to access Severe Weather Emergency Protocol support.

© the Pavement
Town hall: On a mid February evening in Camden, London Streets Kitchen held a meeting to discuss to the council’s appraoch to homelessness and what local organisations, charities and individuals can do to effect change. The meeting was held at St Michael’s Church in Camden and was organised by the Streets Kitchen team with support from SK Legal. A panel presented the situation on the ground at 'Camden: a homeless and housing crisis intensifying', inviting guests present at the meeting to suggest ideas and discuss ways to move forward. Politicians, charity workers and people experiencing homelessness were all in attendance. The night ended on a positive note, a reaffirming of the commitment of local groups to work together and hold the local authorities to account, as well as support people on the streets and experiencing all forms of homelessness.

Dying homeless

Data from the National Records of Scotland (NRS), released in early March, revealed an estimated 231 people died while experiencing homelessness in Scotland in 2024. The NRS figures were slightly lower than the previous year, during which 242 deaths were recorded, but were higher than when records began in 2017. Before the records were released, the Scottish government had found there were 2,092 households reporting a household member experiencing rough sleeping between 1 April to 30 September 2025 across the country.
According to the NRS report, around half (49%) of the people experiencing homelessness who died in 2024 were aged under 45. Responding to the data, Maeve McGoldrick, head of policy and communications at Crisis Scotland, said: “we [Crisis Scotland] are calling on all political parties to commit to ending homelessness by 2040 in their upcoming manifestos.”

Housing news

The housing association Home Group Scotland, working with the local authorities in Edinburgh and Glasgow, has secured a batch of new homes for homeless families in Scotland. Altogether, 16 families are set to move into new homes in the cities: six families in South Queensferry, while 10 families have moved into homes in Tillycairn, Glasgow. An additional eight homes in Farrier Fields, Edinburgh, were scheduled to be made available to families in March 2026. The welcomed Scottish Housing News report comes amidst a severe housing crisis in Scotland. In Edinburgh, for example, homelessness among children and families had risen 148% in the five years leading up to 2024, Shelter Scotland figures show. 

Complaints

The Glasgow Times reported in late February that the owner of the Scotsman Group has written to Glasgow City Council issuing a “strong formal objection” to Homeless Project Scotland's (HPS) retrospective planning application for the use of a building on Glassford Street as a homeless facility. HPS has applied for permission to run a 24-hour facility, with its application papers outlining plans to run a soup kitchen on the ground floor along with a night shelter in the basement. The formal complaint to the council had a redacted name at the end of the letter, however, it states it is from “the owner and operator of the Scotsman Group,” which runs several bars and restaurants in the Merchant City district. The letter’s listed reasons for objecting to the HPS application include: “harm to the economic function and commercial stability of the city centre”, “overconcentration of similar uses” and “adverse impact on business operations and staff safety”. 

Firefighter

A homeless man who attempted to extinguish a fire in a Glasgow shop says the massive explosion from the inferno “nearly killed him.” Footage from the dramtic scene shows James Welch, 51, charging towards a blazing vape shop on Union Street armed with a fire extinguisher, with thick smoke pouring from the building. Two members of the public rushed to drag him away from the danger and moments later a huge explosion burst from the building. The fire raged from the evening of Sunday, 9 March into the next morning, with firefighters battling to contain the devastation. Smoke was seen billowing across the city centre, as the fire destroyed premises on Gordon Street, including historic Victorian buildings. Welch told the Daily Record: “I wasn't scared for my life, I couldn't let people die. I tried to get into the shop by which point I was dragged away from behind… Those men in turn saved my life."

Recovery plan

A trauma-informed recovery hub for people experiencing homelessness is scheduled to open in Glasgow. The Lighthouse Project will be based at Kingston Halls and offer guests counselling, structured activities and employability support to help rebuild lives. The Talbot Association, the city's largest provider of homeless accommodation, is behind the project, which is hoped to be open this year after fundraising is complete. In the meantime, The Talbot Association is inviting community support to help make the project a reality and extend its impact. A key feature of the hub will be a partnership with Glasgow Clyde College, which will see trainee counsellors working alongside structured activities The scheme will also offer arts, mindfulness and digital inclusion. Currently The Talbot Association operates six supported accommodation sites in Glasgow, serving approximately 200,000 meals each year, according to The National.

No vacancy

A Holiday Inn Express in Manchester refused two men from staying in their pre-booked hotel rooms after identifying them as homeless. Two Brews charity volunteer Amanda Thompson, who booked the rooms, told the BBC the men were refused entry because the hotel doesn’t allow homeless people to stay, saying “it’s company policy”. Hotel staff were wrong, of course, and a grovelling apology has since been made by a spokesperson on behalf of Holiday Inn. According to the spokesperson, “this incident is not in keeping with our policy of welcoming all and should have been handled differently.” The men were refused their rooms on an early January night this year, with the temperature outside a freezing -6c. Happily, the men were able to secure a room that night at a Travelodge in Moss Side.

New landlords

Homelessness charity Crisis is planning to purchase properties in the UK, saying it can no longer rely on access to ever-dwindling existing social housing stock. It will be the first time in the charity’s 60-year history it will act as a landlord. Chief executive Matt Downie told the Guardian in late 2025 the charity will fundraise for the project, noting “We [Crisis] wouldn’t be doing this unless the wheels had come off the homelessness and housing system.” He went on to explain the project will pilot in London and Newcastle, aiming “to get to at least 1,000 homes in the first phase, with Housing First tenancy support teams in the two cities ready to go to support people. But the ambition is to move to something even bigger so that we can demonstrate that the solution to homelessness is housing.”

Homeless, Not Hopeless is a podcast that explores real stories from people who have experienced homelessness and are working to rebuild their lives. Through honest conversations, the podcast looks at what helps people move forward, whether they grew up feeling overwhelmed, took an unsteady path into adulthood, or had to restart after hitting a low point. The podcast focuses on practical steps, support systems and the moments that shift someone’s direction. The aim is for listeners to hear what has worked for others, notice where their own experiences resonate and see that although life doesn’t start equally for everyone, progress and change are still possible. It’s not about perfect answers, it’s about exploring real journeys toward stability, confidence and independence. Homeless, Not Hopeless is co-produced by staff and residents of the Single Homeless Project, combining lived experience and professional insight to offer an honest look at homelessness, recovery and resilience. The podcast is available on Spotify and YouTube. If you feel that your story or recovery journey could contribute to the podcast, Homeless, Not Hopeless will be happy to hear from you, please get in touch: AZajac@shp.org.uk

Passport plan

Camden Council in London will offer people sleeping rough ‘personal passports’, used to record information about themselves to share with services. The BBC says the passports were successfully trialled three years ago and will aim to prevent people from having to repeatedly disclose sensitive information, “an exhausting and confusing experience,” a spokesperson for the council said.

Old news

Older generations in the UK are beginning to feel the impact of the escalating housing crisis. A growing number of over-60s are approaching local authorities for homelessness support, with charities pointing to high private rents and lack of social housing affecting pensioners’ ability to find homes. Quoted in the Guardian, Dan Holland, from the Salvation Army’s homelessness services team, explained “not as many people now have a mortgage that they’ve paid off and a roof over their head that they can call their own. Lots more people are renting, relying on housing benefit which has been frozen, so it’s not rocket science, eventually they will end up experiencing homelessness.” Charities including St Mungo’s and Crisis have reported cases of elderly people sleeping for months in their car, people with complex health problems facing homelessness and a rapid increase in over-55s staying in temporary accommodation.

Moved on

A long-standing homeless encampment at Adelphi Terrace in Westminster has mysteriously disappeared, raising concerns for the people who were staying there. In December, the Big Issue published a story about the encampment, featuring powerful portrait photographs of 11 people living there. In total, the magazine counted 30 tents at the encampment late last year. The photographer for the story, Marc Davenant, set up an urgent meeting with Westminster Council on 23 December to discuss the welfare and safety of the people living at the encampment, as he had heard the site would be cleared on 1 January. Before the meeting, however, Davenant was stunned to learn the encampment had already been cleared. He managed to track down a few of the residents at The Connection and one sleeping rough in the area. Two of the more vulnerable members of the encampment have not been seen or heard from since the site was cleared.

The Night Owls and Abstractions exhibition. © Piers Allardyce
Awards season: The 2025 annual Koestler Awards show took place in London’s Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank between October and mid-December. The exhibtion was titled Night Owls and Abstractions, featuring around 200 artworks created by people in criminal justice settings. The works featured in the exhibition were selected from a pool of more than 7,500 entries and include creative writing, painting, sculpture, music and other artforms. Planning for this year’s awards show is already underway, with the theme ‘Roots’. The deadline for entries is Friday 17 April, 2026 and is open to anybody in custody in a UK prison, young offender institution, secure training centre, secure children’s home, immigration removal centre, or high or medium security psychiatric hospital or unit; any current client of the National Probation Service, a youth justice service, or the Scottish Criminal Justice Social Work Service; any UK citizen currently in a prison overseas. Enter the 2026 Koestler Awards national competition here: koestlerarts.org.uk/get-involved/koestler-awards/enter-the-koestler-awards

New homes

At the start of the new year 16 families experiencing homelessness in Scotland have been given homes in Glasgow and Edinburgh, as part of a Home Group Scotland collaboration with local authorities in the cities. Six families have moved into homes in South Queensferry, while 10 have secured a home in Tillycairn, Glasgow. According to Scottish Housing News (SHN), a further eight families will move into Farrier Fields, Edinburgh in March 2026. Bryony Willett, director of the housing associaton Home Group Scotland, told SHN: “Being able to provide affordable housing like this is why we work in social housing. Through these, and previous partnerships, we have been able to provide new homes to local families desperately in need of a place to call their own.”

Dying shame

More than 100 people died while staying in temporary accommodation in Scotland during 2024-25, the Daily Record reported in late December 2025. Overall, 118 people died while living in temporary accommodation. Meanwhile, figures show 17,240 households were staying in council-funded properties in March 2025, a record high. Anas Sarwar, leader of Scottish Labour, said “the SNP ought to be ashamed of this record.” He added that “more than 100 people [have been] robbed of the chance to live out their days in a home of their own.” Resonding to Sarwar’s comments, SNP Housing Secretary Màiri McAllan defended the party’s record: “This government has delivered more than 141,000 affordable homes. In the last four years of the Labour-led government in Scotland, only six new council houses were built compared to the last four years, under this Government, when 8,572 new council houses were built.”

Expert advice

An expert from Heriot-Watt University has warned a return to dormitory-style night shelters in Scotland poses a risk to people experiencing homelessness. Research by Professor Beth Watts-Cobbe suggested so-called “shared air” shelters can lead to worse health outcomes and users being exposed to violence and drug harm. The research comes as pressure to open more night shelters in Scotland mounts. Dormitory-style homeless shelters have been gradually phased out following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, to the point that Homeless Project Scotland runs the country’s only continually active night shelter. Its chief executive, Colin McInnes, told the Press Association he strongly disagreed that shelters should be avoided altogether. He argued: “The suggestion that avoiding shelters is inherently safer than providing emergency cover ignores the real-world consequences of inaction… A key issue with much of this debate is that it is being led almost entirely from an academic and policy perspective, rather than from lived experience or frontline reality.”

CHAIN reaction

New figures from the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) quarterly report, released in October, have shown 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 data makes dismal reading, with a reported 759 people living on the streets of the capital continually through July to September 2025, an 11% rise on last year’s figures over the same time period. Overall 4,711 people were recorded as sleeping rough in London in July to September.

The housing crisis

For the year 2025-26, England will sell eight times more council homes than it built the previous year. Analysis in the i paper has found that an estimated 18,500 council homes will be sold off in 2025-26, in contrast to the 2,260 built in 2024-25. Research by the thinktank Common Wealth highlighted that since 1980, 2.4m council homes have been sold off under right to buy, at a discount that Common Wealth calculated was valued at £194bn, accounting for house price appreciation, with 41% of these homes now belonging to private landlords. In the late 1970s, council homes in England accommodated about 30% of households. The figure is about 6% today, an 80% decline. In 1979, Margaret Thatcher ran for prime minister on a manifesto which included introducing a new Housing Act. In 1980, Thatcher’s Conservative government passed the Housing Act 1980, which gave people the right to buy their council homes. Common Wealth called for expanding “right of first refusal” powers in its November report, powers that enable local authorities to be the preferred buyer when ex-social homes and private rental homes enter the market. 

© the Pavement
Vigil: In early October a record crowd gathered on the steps of St Martin-in-the-Fields, opposite Trafalgar Square in London. They were there to honour and remember the people who died while experiencing homelessness in the UK. The annual vigil, organised by the Museum of Homelessness, coincides with the release of its Dying Homeless project statistics for the year. The project has a simple goal: to number and, where possible, name the people who have died while experiencing homelessness in the past year. According to the latest report, 1,611 people died while homeless in the UK in 2024 – a 9% increase on last year’s findings. Each death is verified by a freedom of information request, coroners’ report, charity or family member. Find out more about the work the Museum of Homelessness does on its website: museumofhomelessness.org

Bank on it

A project run by Shelter, the government and HSBC to help people experiencing homelessness open bank accounts, will be expanded to include Lloyds, NatWest, Barclays, Nationwide and Santander. Commonly, people require a bank account to apply for work and rental accommodation in the UK, which can often be an issue for people experiencing homelessness. The scheme aims to secure people a bank account and provide additional support, such as accompanying individuals to face-to-face meetings at local bank branches. Since the pilot scheme launched in 2019, 7,000 accounts for people experiencing homelessness have been opened with HSBC, reported the Guardian in November. 

Buenos Aires bulletin

The number of people experiencing homelessness in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is increasing at an alarming rate. According to municipal data, which is widely regarded as an underestimate, at least 4,522 people were living on the capital’s streets in May 2025, a 38% increase on the number in November 2023. Charities and homelessness campaigners point to the election of Javier Milei as president in December 2023, whose plan to tackle dizzyingly high inflation has been to implement a devastating austerity programme, as a cause. Accoring to the Guardian, about 200,000 formal jobs have been lost, household debt is on the rise and there has been no improvement in living standards since Miliei took power.

A performance at Recovery Re:Told, an exhibtion organised by the People’s Recovery Project. © the Pavement
Shaping the narrative: The People’s Recovery Project held an exhibition in early October, showcasing art made by people connected to its service. Recovery Re:Told was held at the the House of Annetta in east London from 7-12 October. Drawing on its work supporting people in their recovery from addiction, the People’s Recovery Project aimed to highlight the creative output of its community members, with an array of performances and artworks, including spoken word, music and installations. Learn more about the People’s Recovery Project on its website: thepeoplesrecoveryproject.org

Calling security

Transport for London (TfL) spent £113,365 on hiring a security firm – believed to be MEC Security – to prevent people sleeping rough on Park Lane, between July and September 2025. London Centric revealed in October that security had been deployed to patrol the area and discourage people from sleeping rough there. In May 2025, Westminster City Council won a court order to remove a large encampment on Park Lane near Hyde Park Corner. The strip where people made the encampment is in the Westminster district but is actually managed by TfL. TfL would not say for how long security will patrol the area. 

Funding boost

An additional £1.6m in funding has been provided by the Scottish Government for the next year to tackle homelessness. According to Scottish Housing News, the majority of the funding (£1m) will go towards Discretionary Housing Payments, which help people move from temporary accommodation into settled homes. About £100,000 will be added to an emergency fund for outreach workers to use to help people sleeping rough. The extra funding was announced at Scotland’s Annual Homelessness Conference in Perth, in late October.

© Too Light Too Dark
Podcast news: The latest episode of Too Light Too Dark, the podcast created and hosted by Leon Eckford – whose writing is regularly featured in the Pavement – features members of the Pavement magazine talking about their work and the history of the magazine. The podcast sheds light on people and groups working with homeless people and people in recovery, with past episodes including the People’s Recovery Project and The Homeless Guide. You can listen to Too Light Too Dark on Spotify and Apple Music.

Bad reviews

A Glasgow Evening Times story published in November detailed Glasgow City Council’s legal troubles around homelessness. Since April 2025, the council has had 2,365 threats of judicial review, challenging the council’s use of unsuitable temporary accommodation for people experiencing homelessness. In these cases, people have been placed in unsuitable accommodation for more than seven days, or the council has failed to find suitable alternative accommodation. Of these threats, 31 made it to court, although these were resolved before any orders had to be made against the council.

Obituary

On 3 September, Cyrenians, a Scotland-based charitable organisation providing services focusing on homelessness prevention, shared the deeply sad news that Viki Fox had passed away. Viki had been at Cyrenians for more than eight years, first as a volunteer and later as a full-time staff member. Some of her achievements at Cyrenians include her recent management of the Women’s Recovery House services, as well as committed advocacy for recovery and trauma-informed practice in homeless services. It was while working at Cyrenians that Viki learned about the Pavement magazine. Over a number of years, Viki produced powerful articles exploring her experience of homelessness and substance use. A tireless advocate for homeless people, Viki also worked regularly with Homeless Network Scotland, St Martin-in-the-Fields and was a member of the Board of Trustees at Crisis. Viki will forever be remembered as a wonderfully kind, deeply empaphetic and compassionate person, who brought all of these incredible qualities into her work with the homeless community. We were lucky to know her and share her words with you. 

A picture on display at Look Out!. © The Salvation Army
Photo gallery: A photography group of residents at The Salvation Army’s Strathmore Lodge Lifehouse in Dundee held an exhibition in October, showcasing the incredible work participants in the group produced. The group was given cameras in 2024 and tasked with capturing the city from their own perspective. In October 2025 the results, featuring mostly film and some digital photography, were put on display at Dundee Central Library. The exhibition, Look Out!, was open for two weeks from 9 October, with free entry for visitors. Ricky, a resident of Strathmore Lodge and member of the photography group, stressed the enjoyment of the project in a press release: “My favourite thing was going out on photo walks. Enjoying the sunshine and ending up with good memories that we could print.”