This plan outlines the evidence-based solutions that can end homelessness in Great Britain, built round the belief that everyone should have – and is ready for – a safe, stable place to live. It contains solutions for the long term, rather than to suit current political favour, building on what has worked at home and abroad to end homelessness. The plan shows the costs of preventing and solving homelessness for people, along with the policy changes needed to get us there.

Key findings

• Ending homelessness doesn’t mean that no-one will ever lose their home again. It means it rarely happens, and that there’s a quick solution when it does. This plan shows how to ensure that:
  • No one sleeps rough: whether they are in tents, cars or, at worst, on the streets
  • Everyone has a safe, stable place to live: so that nobody is in emergency accommodation like a hostel or night shelter without a plan to quickly move into housing
  • Where we can predict homelessness, we can prevent it: so that no-one leaves their home or is forced to leave a state institution like prison with nowhere to go
• The plan includes a full list of policy recommendations needed in England, Scotland and Wales to end homelessness. Some of the solutions in the plan include:
  • Building 100,500 new social homes each year for the next 15 years to meet the needs of homeless people and people on low incomes – including those at risk of homelessness
  • Housing Benefit that truly covers the cost of housing and reflects projected rent rises
  • Enabling everyone to access help, including abolishing priority need in England and Wales; ensuring that a lack of a local connection is never a barrier to support; and introducing robust regulation and monitoring of how key bodies support people facing homelessness
  • Funding of Critical Time Interventions, an evidence-based approach that helps people move quickly into their own home
  • Funding for robust, personalised support for all rough sleepers, focused on moving them into permanent accommodation including Housing First for those with complex needs
• PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP have estimated that the total costs of supporting homeless people in our five definitions of ending homelessness between 2018 and 2041 is £19.3bn and will deliver benefits of £53.9bn
• To end homelessness, we will need each government to think strategically. They must work across all relevant government departments, at a local and national level, on a shared long term vision of how to make it a reality.

Reference

Downie, M., Gousy, H., Basran, J., Jacob, R., Rowe, S., Hancock, C., Albanese, F., Pritchard, R., Nightingale, K. and Davies, T. (2018) Everybody In: How to end homelessness in Great Britain. London: Crisis.