Background to street homelessness

The decline in rough sleeper count figures doesn't tell the whole story. 'Rough sleeping' is a narrow concept; counts only include people sleeping in visible locations, mainly in city centres. Ninety per cent of counted rough sleepers are white males, who tend to be the most visible.

Why street homelessness and not rough sleeping?

The term street homelessness is more inclusive than rough sleeping. It includes vulnerable people who may have somewhere basic to sleep at night, but who can be on the streets during the day; for example, people who stay in derelict buildings and squats, people sleeping outside of city centres and those who stay in hostels. It also includes street-based sex workers who are vulnerable and homeless, but not visibly sleeping on the street.

Street homelessness includes higher numbers of homeless people from BME groups and women.

What causes street homelessness?

Sometimes street homeless people are seen as an antisocial city centre problem to be solved by enforcement measures such as Anti Social Behaviour Orders. It is sometimes asserted that if you give people free food on the street or give money to beggars you are encouraging them to remain homeless. Those who hold this view believe that there are enough services available but street homeless people are reluctant to accept them.

At Shelter we believe there are not enough services for street homeless people. Whilst enforcement measures may help some people, for the most part they will simply displace street homeless people; moving them out of sight, rather than providing the help and support they really need. We believe that giving people free food on the streets can in some circumstances help end their homelessness rather than sustain it and we support the work that the organisation Housing Justice is doing in this area.

Some street homelessness is caused simply by lack of suitable accommodation. People who remain street homeless for long periods though, or whom become homeless repeatedly, will usually have at least one "need" or health problem in addition to their homelessness. Often they have more than one; and are sometimes referred to as having "multiple needs". These additional needs can help cause continued homelessness and in turn can themselves be made worse by continued homelessness.

The three most common multiple needs are:

• Mental health
• Problem drug and alcohol use
• Offending behaviour.

Street homelessness cannot really be solved unless these issues are addressed. That's why at our Street Homeless Project we have specialists in these areas.

Understanding street homelessness

The first thing that is needed is a proper understanding of the problem. Street counts of visible rough sleepers, which only look in certain places and have strict rules about who can be included, don't provide this. This is why we have been supporting new ways of surveying street homeless people.

• In Leeds we supported a survey that looked outside of the city centre.
• In Oxford we supported a survey that targeted people who were both street homeless and avoiding hostels.

We also believe that common monitoring has a much greater role to play in understanding street homelessness.

Housing First

When we think of solutions to street homelessness, hostels are usually the the most obvious that come to mind. However, hostels don't necessarily end homelessness. The Government's Places of Change hostel improvement programme aims to address this issue and it is welcome.

For some people though, even improved hostels aren't the best solution. At Shelter we are supporting projects that provide alternatives to hostels, particularly projects that enable people to move from street homelessness directly into more settled forms of accommodation. This approach is sometimes called 'Housing First'. It isn't a solution that will work for all street homeless people, but for some it can work well. You can read about the Housing First approach in a Shelter-funded report called 'Living without a Label'.

To find out more about our work or to request a copy of any of the reports or projects mentioned here, email goodpractice@shelter.org.uk.