What do we mean by ‘rough sleeper’?

Rough sleepers are defined as anyone found, during the annual counts, either sleeping or about to bed down in the open air – be it on the street or in a park – or in a building not designed for habitation. While rough sleepers are (in virtually every case) homeless, the legal definition of homelessness can also apply to anyone who has no home of their own to occupy, but may be living in temporary accommodation.

Those who end up rough sleeping are often those who are not considered by law to be ‘priority need’ for local council support. This tends to cover families, the elderly, the sick, and other groups such as veterans and victims of domestic violence. Single people with no dependents often struggle to get support.

Why has the figure increased in recent years?

The causes of homelessness are complex, and no one rough sleeper’s story will be the same. However, most charities and housing experts agree that a combination of the Government’s welfare reforms, reductions in the availability of affordable housing, rising rents, and cuts to councils funding are all contributing.

How have welfare reforms had an impact on homelessness?

Cuts to most benefit payments have hit incomes, but the main factor here is the decision to hold down the rate at which housing benefits increase at just one per cent a year since 2013. During this time, rents have continued to rise at a much higher rate. Housing benefits are now set to be frozen for four years. The Crisis charity says that the loss of a private tenancy is now the biggest cause of homelessness and has just completed a survey of 800 landlords which found that more than half are no longer willing to let to people on housing benefit.