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Homeless people in the United Kingdom are dying in record numbers — 1,611 lives lost last year alone — because successive governments have refused to treat homelessness as the national emergency it is.
The Museum of Homelessness, which has compiled the figures after the government stopped doing so in 2022, says the deaths “show how homeless people continue to be deeply failed”.
That’s putting it mildly!
These deaths are not isolated tragedies; they are the predictable result of years of deliberate policy choices that have punished the poorest and dismantled the systems meant to protect them.
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A crisis measured in lives
Most of those who died — two-thirds — were not even living on the streets, but in temporary or supported accommodation that was supposed to keep them safe.
169 people died while rough sleeping. 11 were children.
Three-quarters of all the dead were men, but that is where the pattern stops being statistical and becomes personal: people dying in hostels, in shelters, in bin sheds, or unseen.
The worst increases were in Nottingham and Exeter, where deaths more than doubled.
London still recorded the highest total number.
In England as a whole, deaths rose by 16 per cent in a year; Northern Ireland saw an increase of more than a third.
Only Scotland – run by the SNP – showed real progress, with deaths down by 18 per cent, thanks largely to stronger housing support in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The government’s abandonment of official data collection is telling – hiding the scale of the problem and dodging accountability, which is exactly the opposite of what a civilised nation should do when confronted with such suffering.
A decade and a half of deliberate neglect
Homelessness has soared since 2010, driven by the policies of Conservative-led governments that shredded social housing provision, slashed local authority budgets and turned benefits into traps of humiliation.
Council housing was sold off faster than it was replaced.
Mental health and addiction services were cut back.
Even public spaces were made hostile, with spikes installed to keep rough sleepers away and benches redesigned so people could not rest on them.
Each of these decisions was made in full knowledge of what it would do.
Each pushed more people into insecurity and despair.
And each has brought us to this: record numbers of deaths that ministers prefer to describe as “heartbreaking” rather than acknowledge as preventable.
Labour’s inaction continues the pattern
Those hoping the Labour government would change direction have seen little to justify their faith.
While ministers repeat that they are “accelerating efforts” to tackle homelessness, the Museum of Homelessness reports no visible improvement.
Labour’s pledge to build 180,000 homes for social rent over the next decade sounds impressive until you realise it averages only 18,000 a year — nowhere near enough to meet current need, let alone reduce it.
Meanwhile, the churn of ministers — with Angela Rayner and Rushanara Ali both moving on from their housing and homelessness roles this year (2025) — shows how little priority the issue really has.
The human cost of political failure
Behind the numbers are people like Anthony Marks, assaulted while sheltering in a bin shed near London’s King’s Cross and dead within weeks, and Richard Sanders, who died unnoticed in a hostel in south London.
His mother was only told nine days later.
These are not isolated stories.
They are the natural consequence of a system that values property more than people.
Utah’s example: proof that political will works
It does not have to be this way.
In the ultra-conservative US state of Utah, authorities faced the same problem two decades ago — and made a radically different choice.
From 2005, the state launched a Housing First policy, giving homeless people permanent homes with supportive services instead of leaving them to cycle through shelters, hospitals and jails.
The results were astonishing.
Chronic homelessness fell by up to 90 per cent. It also saved the state money: keeping someone homeless cost about £17,000 dollars a year in emergency services, but housing them cost only around £11,000.
Utah’s officials did the maths and realised compassion was cheaper — and far more effective.
The lesson is clear: when a government decides homelessness is unacceptable, it can end it. It requires commitment, funding and a refusal to treat housing as a privilege.
A policy of neglect
The United Kingdom has never had such a programme on a national scale.
Instead, we see pilot schemes, token grants and speeches about “root causes” while people continue to die.
Even the word temporary has lost its meaning: families live for years in unsafe hostels or B&Bs because there is nowhere else to go.
Every death is a measure of failure — and of political cowardice.
The means to end homelessness exist, proven by evidence from Utah and elsewhere. What we lack is the will to use them.
Governments that can afford to write off billions in tax breaks for the wealthy could afford to house every homeless person in the country.
They simply choose not to.
The 1,611 lives lost last year are not just statistics; they are the visible outcome of political decisions.
Homelessness is not inevitable; it is engineered — and it can be ended if leaders care enough to act.
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Record deaths of homeless people in the UK are a political choice – and there’s a better way
Share this post:
Homeless people in the United Kingdom are dying in record numbers — 1,611 lives lost last year alone — because successive governments have refused to treat homelessness as the national emergency it is.
The Museum of Homelessness, which has compiled the figures after the government stopped doing so in 2022, says the deaths “show how homeless people continue to be deeply failed”.
That’s putting it mildly!
These deaths are not isolated tragedies; they are the predictable result of years of deliberate policy choices that have punished the poorest and dismantled the systems meant to protect them.
A crisis measured in lives
Most of those who died — two-thirds — were not even living on the streets, but in temporary or supported accommodation that was supposed to keep them safe.
169 people died while rough sleeping. 11 were children.
Three-quarters of all the dead were men, but that is where the pattern stops being statistical and becomes personal: people dying in hostels, in shelters, in bin sheds, or unseen.
The worst increases were in Nottingham and Exeter, where deaths more than doubled.
London still recorded the highest total number.
In England as a whole, deaths rose by 16 per cent in a year; Northern Ireland saw an increase of more than a third.
Only Scotland – run by the SNP – showed real progress, with deaths down by 18 per cent, thanks largely to stronger housing support in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The government’s abandonment of official data collection is telling – hiding the scale of the problem and dodging accountability, which is exactly the opposite of what a civilised nation should do when confronted with such suffering.
A decade and a half of deliberate neglect
Homelessness has soared since 2010, driven by the policies of Conservative-led governments that shredded social housing provision, slashed local authority budgets and turned benefits into traps of humiliation.
Council housing was sold off faster than it was replaced.
Mental health and addiction services were cut back.
Even public spaces were made hostile, with spikes installed to keep rough sleepers away and benches redesigned so people could not rest on them.
Each of these decisions was made in full knowledge of what it would do.
Each pushed more people into insecurity and despair.
And each has brought us to this: record numbers of deaths that ministers prefer to describe as “heartbreaking” rather than acknowledge as preventable.
Labour’s inaction continues the pattern
Those hoping the Labour government would change direction have seen little to justify their faith.
While ministers repeat that they are “accelerating efforts” to tackle homelessness, the Museum of Homelessness reports no visible improvement.
Labour’s pledge to build 180,000 homes for social rent over the next decade sounds impressive until you realise it averages only 18,000 a year — nowhere near enough to meet current need, let alone reduce it.
Meanwhile, the churn of ministers — with Angela Rayner and Rushanara Ali both moving on from their housing and homelessness roles this year (2025) — shows how little priority the issue really has.
The human cost of political failure
Behind the numbers are people like Anthony Marks, assaulted while sheltering in a bin shed near London’s King’s Cross and dead within weeks, and Richard Sanders, who died unnoticed in a hostel in south London.
His mother was only told nine days later.
These are not isolated stories.
They are the natural consequence of a system that values property more than people.
Utah’s example: proof that political will works
It does not have to be this way.
In the ultra-conservative US state of Utah, authorities faced the same problem two decades ago — and made a radically different choice.
From 2005, the state launched a Housing First policy, giving homeless people permanent homes with supportive services instead of leaving them to cycle through shelters, hospitals and jails.
The results were astonishing.
Chronic homelessness fell by up to 90 per cent. It also saved the state money: keeping someone homeless cost about £17,000 dollars a year in emergency services, but housing them cost only around £11,000.
Utah’s officials did the maths and realised compassion was cheaper — and far more effective.
The lesson is clear: when a government decides homelessness is unacceptable, it can end it. It requires commitment, funding and a refusal to treat housing as a privilege.
A policy of neglect
The United Kingdom has never had such a programme on a national scale.
Instead, we see pilot schemes, token grants and speeches about “root causes” while people continue to die.
Even the word temporary has lost its meaning: families live for years in unsafe hostels or B&Bs because there is nowhere else to go.
Every death is a measure of failure — and of political cowardice.
The means to end homelessness exist, proven by evidence from Utah and elsewhere. What we lack is the will to use them.
Governments that can afford to write off billions in tax breaks for the wealthy could afford to house every homeless person in the country.
They simply choose not to.
The 1,611 lives lost last year are not just statistics; they are the visible outcome of political decisions.
Homelessness is not inevitable; it is engineered — and it can be ended if leaders care enough to act.
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