The government's homelessness strategy will fail without fundamental changes

The government should fundamentally rethink how it tackles homelessness and move from crisis intervention to prevention, argues a new report – published ahead of the spending review – by the Institute for Government and Centre for Homelessness Impact.

The report, published today, argues that acute homelessness services are becoming increasingly unaffordable for local authorities while failing to address its root causes. It finds that the bill for providing temporary accommodation for households at risks of homelessness now stands at £2.4bn a year. As a result, since 2010 real terms homelessness spending has more than doubled to £3.1bn, but only £0.7bn a year is left for vital preventative programmes, outreach work, and support for individuals transitioning out of homelessness.

With overall government spending set to remain tight for the rest of this parliament, A smarter approach to homelessness: Prioritising prevention in the 2025 spending review says the spending review is a crucial opportunity for the government to turn around a failing approach.

The new report identifies key reasons behind ongoing failures to tackle homelessness, including:

• A lack of co-ordination in one area undermining positive progress in another, such as recent Home Office action to clear the asylum backlog having a drastic impact on homelessness levels.
• Poor data systems making it difficult to effectively identify individuals at risk of homelessness and efficiently allocate resources.
• Perverse incentives such as services only being accessible to those already sleeping rough, potentially incentivising those at risk of homelessness to sleep rough so that they qualify for help.

Drawing on a series of case studies, the report then sets out recommendations for the government to redesign its homelessness strategy, including:

• Moving from acute interventions and towards addressing root causes. For example, the introduction of a school-based screening questionnaire to identify risks of homelessness among pupils in Victoria, Australia, was followed by a 40% reduction in the number of adolescents seeking homelessness assistance from local services
• Recognising that preventing homelessness cannot be solely the responsibility of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and local areas and should instead be a shared duty across all public services, from education and healthcare to social care and employment support.
• A £100m strategic investment fund – the Preventing Homelessness Endowment – to drive innovation, scale prevention, build capacity, and ensure effective performance management.
  Including much more social and affordable housing in its 1.5m new homes target.
   

Stuart Hoddinott, IfG report author, said:

“At a time when homelessness is rising and putting more pressure than ever on local authorities' finances, it has never been more important for the government to work out how it can support people before they reach a point of crisis. Preventing homelessness before it arises leads to better outcomes for the people affected and is better value for taxpayer money.”

Ligia Teixeira, chief executive of the Centre for Homelessness Impact, said:

“The government has a critical opportunity to shift away from a system that responds to homelessness once it occurs towards a more proactive and preventative model. Many of the current models of homelessness spending are reactive and incur high and recurring costs, while delivering poor value for money and very poor outcomes for individuals. Redesigning homelessness spending to support and sustain prevention and early intervention will, over time, deliver better value for money and better outcomes for people at risk.”

ABOUT THE CENTRE FOR HOMELESSNESS IMPACT

The Centre for Homelessness Impact champions the creation and use of better evidence to accelerate an end to homelessness and is a member of the What Works Network. It seeks to improve the lives of those experiencing homelessness by ensuring policy, practice and funding decisions are underpinned by reliable evidence. Website: http://www.homelessnessimpact.org