UK Homelessness

 In fact, the UK has one of the highest populations experiencing homelessness in OECD countries, according to data from 2023, with 16 people in every 100,000 people living on the streets and 410 per 100,000 living in temporary accommodation or shelters

More than 300,000 people in the UK – half of them children – are thought to be sleeping on friends’ sofas or in cars or other forms of temporary accommodation. It’s estimated that around 14 million people in the UK live in relative poverty and the number of people relying on food banks has surged from 25,000 in 2009 to more than 3 million in 2024. In the US, the number of people living on the streets is 76 per 100,000, with 117 per 100,000 staying in temporary housing. Of the half million people experiencing homelessness in the US in 2022, around one in five lived in either Los Angeles or New York, with half of all unsheltered people living in California, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. All four countries in the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) have segments of the population struggling with housing and homelessness. England’s overall homeless population in 2021 was 274,000, according to the homelessness charity Shelter. Of this total, “rough sleepers” account for the most noticeable sub-population. These are individuals who sleep outside on the streets, doorways, benches, etc. Statistics show 2,688 rough sleepers on the streets of England on any given night in 2021.