82% of people sleeping rough last year were men, study finds
A research study has found that the vast majority of people sleeping rough in England, Scotland and Wales last year were male.
This finding was revealed in new data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The study was conducted by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), who asked respondents to fill in a ‘Rough Sleeping Questionnaire’ between February 2019 and March 2020.
The data suggests that those who sleep rough in the UK are predominantly men, as the overall population ratio is around six men to one woman.
Likewise, the study found that in Scotland, in applications for homelessness support where rough sleeping was reported, over 8 out of 10 lead applicants were male.
In March 2020, at the onset of the pandemic, local authorities in England estimated there were 6,000 people sleeping rough.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government housed about 15,000 people who were sleeping rough or at risk of sleeping rough in temporary accommodation as part of the ‘Everyone In’ programme.
From February 2019 to March 2020, the vast majority of rough sleepers were aged 26 years and over.
Only 5.1% of rough sleepers were aged 25 years and under.
The year 2019 to 2020 also saw an increase in the number of households owed a homeless relief duty in England.
8,410 households were owed a relief duty from April 2019 to March 2020, compared to 7,030 for the previous year.
As the Department for Communities and Local Government outlines, homelessness relief refers to the actions taken to help the homeless.
If an eligible applicant has sought help from their local housing authority when they are homeless, they are owed relief duty.
The duty, which lasts up to 56 days, could include help with rent deposit or debt advice.
Dr Andrea Gibbons, Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Salford, explained why England’s homeless population is predominantly male.
She said: “The number of people rough sleeping is actually very small compared to the entire number of people who are homeless. Rough sleepers are just a proportion of that. They tend to be mostly single and mostly male. The homelessness legislation in this country is geared to help those who are most in need. That’s actually changed since the passing of the last Homelessness Reduction Act.
“But the final duty of actually putting someone into a house, you have to show what they call ‘priority need’. So, you have to show that you’re vulnerable, if you’ve got kids or you’re pregnant. Single people more broadly, generally, often fall outside of these restrictions on who gets helped, men especially.
“Councils are limited in helping people into housing. There isn’t housing to put people into. So, hard decisions have to be made. It’s generally single men that are kind of falling outside, as they have done for a long time. This has been an awful, tragic, horrific problem for decades now.”
Dr Gibbons also outlined the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on rough sleepers.
She continued: “In a way, the pandemic showed that the Government could end homelessness if they wanted to. Recognising that having thousands of people sleeping rough was just a public health disaster waiting to happen, the Government put massive funding, for the first time in decades, for the third sector and local councils to support homeless people. They did their best to move every single person off the streets and into at least a hotel room. That obviously had its own challenges and we learned a lot. It was halfway inspirational and halfway really depressing, because why haven’t we done this before?”
cc-by-sa/2.0 — © Evelyn Simak — geograph.org.uk/p/6246495.
Additionally, the UK’s lack of social housing is a huge obstacle for the homeless population, Dr Gibbons suggested.
Social housing refers to accommodation which is provided by councils or non-profit housing associations at affordable rates to people on low incomes.
Dr Gibbons added: “People become homeless for so many reasons. You break up with your partner, for example, so you move out. But the real problem is not that this personal stuff happened. It’s that there’s nowhere for people to go and the rents are too high.
“One part of the solution is to build social housing and ensure that there is housing for people to move in to, especially for people struggling with childhood trauma or abuse, which makes it really difficult for them to get out. They need a really safe space to deal with it. With cuts to the welfare state and austerity, we’re seeing a huge spike in mental health issues. We need more funding into mental health and especially dual diagnosis stuff, where people are using alcohol or drugs to help deal with their severe mental health issues. So, no-one will help them. The addiction services say, “you’re too complex for us, we can’t deal with you” and mental health services often say, “you’ve got addiction issues, we can’t deal with you”.
“These people always fall through the net. We’ve interviewed many people at the University of Salford and so many of them have heart-breaking histories and they’ve been failed over and over and over again by social care, by welfare, by everyone.
“The other thing is funding for Housing First, which is when you put someone in a house and give them wrap-around support. That’s been proven to be hugely effective. There is some funding of that in Greater Manchester.
“In Salford, Salford Loaves and Fishes are incredible. They do everything that the third sector could possibly do, but they still face this problem where people can’t get into a house, or they get people into a house but then they face eviction in six months. There’s only so much you can do until someone is safely housed and secure in that housing. The Government is the major part of the solution [to ending homelessness], but for individuals, the best thing to do is to volunteer or work with a homelessness organisation.”
Although ‘Everyone In’ was hailed as a success of the pandemic, the Government is facing criticism for its treatment of renters.
No-fault evictions from the private rented sector, called Section 21 evictions, are a driving factor of homelessness.
Earlier this month marked the first ever Renters’ Rights Awareness Week (14–20 June 2021).
When the pandemic hit, bailiffs were banned from evicting tenants who had someone in their household with Covid-19 symptoms.
This eviction ban now has come to an end.
In May, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation revealed that almost 400,000 renters fear that they will be evicted from their homes.
Renters have been handed eviction notices, have been told to expect one, or are worrying about being in arrears with their rent.
Tenants who are worried about being unable to pay their rent or fear eviction can seek advice at Citizens Advice or contact their local council using https://www.gov.uk/find-local-council.
For more information about the MHCLG homelessness study, visit https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/housing/articles/roughsleepingintheuk/2002to2021.
