People with physical ill health and disabilities representing increasing proportion of people facing homelessness, says Homelessness charity Crisis
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New analysis of government data by national charity Crisis shows
that the proportion of households facing homelessness with physical
ill health and disability needs in England has increased markedly
over the past five years. Studying the UK Government's most recent
statutory homelessness figures, Crisis has found that 62,040
households with physical ill health and disability needs faced
homelessness in 2023/24. This represents around a fifth (19%) of
324,990 total households...Request free
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New analysis of government data by national charity Crisis shows that the proportion of households facing homelessness with physical ill health and disability needs in England has increased markedly over the past five years. Studying the UK Government's most recent statutory homelessness figures, Crisis has found that 62,040 households with physical ill health and disability needs faced homelessness in 2023/24. This represents around a fifth (19%) of 324,990 total households facing homelessness. In 2018/19, there were 35,860 households facing homelessness with these support needs, representing around an eighth (13%) of total households. Crisis also found that quarterly data updates show that this proportion has continued to rise, with more than 21% of households facing homelessness expressing physical ill health and disability as a support need between October and December 2024. In real terms, there has been a 73% increase in the number of households with these support needs who approached their council for homelessness support between 2018/19 and 2023/2024. Why is this happening? This increase could be attributed to some, or a combination, of the following factors:
People with physical health conditions and disabilities often find it more difficult to find somewhere to live, because of a significant lack of accessible and truly affordable housing across England. A 2023 report by the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee found that people with disabilities have been placed on decades-long waiting lists for social housing which is accessible for their needs. With councils across England struggling to fund new social and affordable housing, Crisis is concerned that people with health needs will be placed in even more vulnerable situations. Over the past 10 years there has been a net loss of more than 180,000 social homes, as these homes are sold off or demolished at a faster rate than they are built. Furthermore, it now appears that fewer social homes are going to households with a disability than before. Of new social housing lettings in 2023/24, 16% were to households with a disability or access-related housing need (a total of 34,912 households). This fell from 20% in 2022/23 (39,866 households), decreasing for the second year in a row. This means that while the overall number of new social tenancies increased, almost 5,000 fewer households with disability or access-related housing need were accommodated in social housing in 2023/24 compared to the previous year (MHCLG, 2025). In the private sector, disabled people have faced significantly higher asking prices for accessible homes and, in some cases, landlords have denied permission for adaptations to make properties accessible (both cited in a LUHC committee report on Disabled people in the housing sector, March 2024). Circumstances such as these can leave disabled people without somewhere suitable to live and at risk of homelessness. More widely, a recent report from Crisis and Health Equals revealed the extent of housing affordability in England. It found that just 2.5% of private rented properties listed in England are affordable for people needing housing benefit. This is forcing people into often unsuitable and poor quality temporary accommodation that can be harmful for their health or exacerbate existing health concerns. Why is this so concerning? Physical health issues are very common among people experiencing homelessness – and it is clear that experiencing homelessness is likely to perpetuate or aggravate health issues. In 2024 the charity Homeless Link found through its Health Needs Audit that a large majority (78%) of survey respondents experiencing homelessness reported having a physical health condition, most commonly issues with joints, muscles and bones, or dental problems. Comorbidity was common: 80% of respondents with a physical health problem reported having two or more conditions. Many respondents suffered from conditions that were chronic and disabling: nearly two thirds (63%) reported a long-term illness, disability or infirmity. There's evidence that living in temporary accommodation can cause physical health problems. Poor quality housing comes with serious hazards such as damp, mould and overcrowding, as well as a lack of cooking and personal hygiene facilities. All of these pose serious risks to health. A report published earlier this year by the APPG on Households in Temporary Accommodation found that in the past five years temporary accommodation has been a contributing factor in the deaths of at least 74 children. Rough sleeping is the most dangerous form of homelessness and can cause significant health problems. Crisis conducted a study of people sleeping rough in 2023 in which 94% reported at least one health issue. Moreover, 69% of people sleeping rough reported living in physical pain and 66% had issues with their feet and legs related to walking. Crucially, people can find it incredibly difficult to access health care when experiencing homelessness. Two-thirds of respondents to a Faculty for Homeless and Inclusion Health survey reported people being refused access to GPs because of lack of ID or proof of address. Dentistry services for people in inclusion health groups (including people experiencing homelessness) were described as ‘non-existent'. The difficulty for councils Many councils face extreme budgetary pressures, partly driven by a lack of housing for people who need it. With a serious lack of social and genuinely affordable homes, councils are being forced to pay to house people in costly and often unsuitable temporary accommodation. Last year, this cost English councils £2.3bn. What has the new Westminster Government done around this? Since assuming power, the new Westminster Government has made several promising commitments. It has:
There are pressing concerns elsewhere, however. The confirmed cuts to welfare spending will leave households on lower incomes worse off and at increased risk of homelessness; the recent freezing of housing benefit effectively delivers a real term cut that makes it harder for people to cover the cost of private rents; and the suggested changes to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) will create more barriers for people to move into suitable accommodation. We know that many people are forced to use PIP to top up their rent payment to avoid homelessness as housing benefit, repeatedly frozen in the past, often does not cover it. Ministers have declined to set a specific social homes target as part of the 1.5 million target. Finally, this year's NHS England Planning Guidance (how it sets priorities for NHS services) makes no mention of homelessness, despite considerable evidence of the links between poor health and homelessness. What can or should be done? To address this concerning trend, Crisis is calling on the Westminster Government to do five things:
Matt Downie, chief executive of Crisis, said: “These figures are really concerning. We know that homelessness often exacerbates or creates health issues – whether by forcing people to live in mouldy and damp rooms, or by making it more complicated to access healthcare. The increases we are seeing are likely to mean more hardship, and more pressure on already overstretched councils. “There have been some promising commitments from the Westminster Government, including around social housing. Yet the recent decision to freeze housing benefit will make it harder for people to find somewhere to live, and we are still losing more social homes per year than we're building. Changes to PIP will make it harder for people with disabilities to leave homelessness behind. “After years of underinvestment, we need ministers to provide renewed security and stability for people across the country. This means showing the political will to build 90,000 new social homes per year, over the next five years, unfreezing housing benefit and funding the right support for people contending with the threats of poverty and homelessness.” Alex Bax, chief executive of Pathway, said: “The picture these figures paint is shocking but sadly not surprising. We know that poor health is both a cause and a consequence of homelessness, but that our health service is too often unable to provide the care that people facing homelessness need. This means people being turned away from GP surgeries, facing late diagnosis of serious illnesses like cancer, and unable to manage chronic conditions like diabetes, all while struggling with homelessness. “It is time for bold action to treat poor health and homelessness in the joined-up way that these figures show is so desperately needed. The Government's 10 Year NHS plan, along with its homelessness strategy, is an opportunity to do this, preventing illness by improving GP access for people facing homelessness, making sure that homelessness is counted in NHS data and providing the right specialist healthcare in hospitals and the community.” -Ends- Notes to Editor For data tables, please see our webpage here. Lack of accessible housing for people with disabilities: In May 2024 the House of Commons Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee published a report on disabled people's experiences in the housing sector. The report was informed by over 1000 people who responded to an online survey or provided written evidence, including hundreds of personal accounts from people with disabilities. The full report can be found here. The impact of sleeping rough on physical health: Crisis conducted research in late 2023 with 157 people who had slept rough within the last two years. The survey was completed face-to-face across homelessness services in a number of locations in England including the North West, North East, Midlands and London. It was complemented by 20 in-depth interviews, which included questions about health. The full report can be found here. The impact of temporary accommodation on physical health: In January 2025 the APPG for Households in Temporary Accommodation released a report stating that between 1st April 2019 to 31st March 2024, 74 children have died with temporary accommodation as a contributing factor to their vulnerability, ill-health, or death. Of these 74 children, 58 were under the age of 1. These numbers were obtained from the National Child Mortality Database. The full report can be found here. |