Annual Rough Sleeping Snapshot 2019: Rough sleeping down 9% in a year, but still 141% higher than 2010

The government has today released new figures for 2019 on the number of people sleeping rough in England. They show:

• In 2019, 4,266 people were recorded as sleeping rough on a given night in England – this has decreased by 9% in the last year, but is still 141% higher than 2010, when this data first started being collected.

• 83% of people recorded as rough sleeping on a given night in 2019 were men, and 14% were women – this works out as 3,534 men and 614 women.  The number of women in the snapshot is believed to be far lower than the reality because they may choose to sleep on public transport or away from public walkways.

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: "It’s good news if fewer people are facing the trauma of sleeping on the streets. But a word of warning, the number of people sleeping rough remains well over double what it was in 2010.  

'You can’t put a plaster on a gaping wound. Serious investment in social housing is what’s needed. The upcoming budget is the perfect opportunity to champion a new generation of social homes and increase housing benefit, so it covers the basic cost of private rents."

"The prime minister rightly wants to end rough sleeping before the end of the parliament, but unless his government tackles the drought of genuinely affordable homes, homelessness isn’t going anywhere. Rough sleeping is only the tip of the iceberg – there are literally hundreds of thousands more homeless people stuck in temporary accommodation.