The Homelessness Effect

Suzanne was 73 and still working when she became homeless. She had been a professional in teaching. She had access to a computer, could fill in forms and understood how systems worked¹. She hadn't been sleeping rough.

Suzanne had shared a house with an old friend for some years, but eventually the property became too expensive. She could find nowhere locally that she could afford. A friend gave her a spare room for about nine months while she tried to find somewhere to live. During this time, her health deteriorated and she applied for social housing¹.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Suzanne described the experience as terrifying. She considered herself lucky because she understood the system and eventually found a housing officer who helped her secure a home¹.

Suzanne's story is important because homelessness is often discussed from the other end. She explains how there are older people who have paid rent all their lives while rents have steadily climbed. As they reach pension age, their income can fall while housing costs remain high. She knows people now living in vans because homelessness has crept into life¹.

We see somebody unemployed, struggling with their mental health, dependent on drugs or alcohol, in debt or involved with the criminal justice system and assume these things explain why they became homeless.

When Homelessness Becomes Part of the Problem

The relationship between homelessness and the problems associated with it does not run in one direction².

An employed person loses their home. Temporary accommodation moves them further from work. Their journey becomes more expensive. Sleep becomes difficult. They have nowhere reliable to wash or store work clothes or replace them if they are lost or stolen².

If they eventually lose their job, the person recorded later is unemployed and homeless. But unemployment did not cause their homelessness. Homelessness contributed to their unemployment.

The same can happen elsewhere. Poor mental health or substance dependency that preceded homelessness can worsen during it. Illness becomes harder to manage without somewhere safe to recover or store medication². Ordinary systems expect us to have an address, identification, a bank account, internet access and a working phone.

Government guidance has specific provisions for Universal Credit claimants who do not have them³. Even a phone running out of charge can mean missing a message from a housing officer or a call about work.

None of these things explains why somebody originally became homeless. But they can make escaping homelessness harder.

What Happens to the Pledge after Christmas?

That question has become particularly relevant recently.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged to offer everyone sleeping rough in England a route off the streets this winter⁴. He wants to “get everyone in for Christmas⁵”. The £442 million package includes emergency accommodation, support for health and other needs, with 1,200 new homes planned as part of the wider programme⁴.

But what happens after Christmas was a question that repeatedly surfaced during BBC Radio 5 Live's discussion of the announcement¹.

Marcus Fair MBE, founder and managing director of Eternal Media, was awarded his honour for services to addiction recovery, ex-offenders and tackling homelessness⁶. He described his own 25-year history of addiction, offending and homelessness and talked about people getting clean and then returning to accommodation where other residents were still using drugs¹.

He also described hotels where people with different levels of addiction were living together and people finding the restrictions of some accommodation so difficult that returning to the streets could seem easier¹.

When a Roof isn't Enough

One 5 Live caller, Stuart from Birmingham, described what he believed had happened when people with significant support needs were housed in his building¹. He talked about drug use, antisocial behaviour and the effect on existing residents. His conclusion was that some formerly homeless people simply did not know how to live in that environment¹.

Fiona Colley, Director of Social Change at Homeless Link, offered a different explanation⁷.

She said what Stuart described sounded like inappropriate placement. She pointed to people being housed without adequate support and raised concerns about the quality of some provision¹. If somebody is housed but the problems that now accompany their homelessness are left untouched, what has been solved?

Professor Beth Watts-Cobbe of Heriot-Watt University is an author of the 2025 Homelessness Monitor: England⁸. During the programme, she raised similar concerns about some forms of congregate accommodation¹. She pointed instead towards mainstream housing accompanied by support, including Housing First¹.

Housing First was designed around that principle for people with complex needs. Rather than requiring someone to become sufficiently stable before being given a permanent home, housing comes first and support continues around them⁹.

One Government case study follows a woman called Tammy¹⁰. Her history included trauma, rough sleeping, drug use and serious mental-health difficulties. She had previously abandoned a housing-association tenancy and returned to rough sleeping. Later she was remanded in prison¹⁰. Her Housing First worker continued visiting her there¹⁰.

Tammy subsequently engaged with drug and mental-health treatment, renewed contact with her children and signed a tenancy ready for her release¹⁰. Much of Tammy's trauma came before homelessness.

What her story shows is what can be required once homelessness, poor health and criminal justice involvement have begun feeding into each other.

Homeless Without Looking Homeless

Suzanne's experience also exposes another problem with the current discussion.

Homelessness is a bigger issue than rough sleeping¹¹. Someone can move between friends, stay temporarily with relatives, sleep in a car or remain with somebody because the alternative is worse¹¹.

During the nine months Suzanne lived in her friend's spare room, she had somewhere to sleep. She was still homeless.

Sofa surfing can conceal homelessness particularly effectively. Someone may spend months moving between other people's homes before approaching a council. They may only seek help when they finally have nowhere left to stay, despite having been homeless for much longer¹¹.

When Homelessness Starts Repeating Itself

Government researchers linking homelessness records found something individual case files can miss.

Around one in six cases in the linked dataset involved repeat homelessness¹². Repeat homeless households were less likely than first-time homeless households to secure accommodation expected to last at least 12 months following the relief stage¹².

A homelessness case can be closed when somebody is accommodated. But that record cannot tell us whether the housing will last. Getting somebody housed and keeping them housed are not the same thing.

Breaking the Chain

A household can enter homelessness with one problem: they need somewhere affordable to live. Months later, that household may be dealing with disrupted employment, debt, worsening health or the loss of people who had been helping them². The problem that needs solving has changed.

This may be why homelessness can look inevitable from the outside. We encounter people after the effect chain has been running. We see mental illness, addiction, unemployment or offending and assume we are looking at the explanation when we may be looking at what happened along the way.

We have become accustomed to homelessness as something extraordinarily difficult to solve. For some people, it is. But perhaps we should pay more attention to when it became so difficult.

References:

1. Nicky Campbell; BBC Radio 5 Live (August 2026). Discussion of the Government's rough sleeping pledge, supports Suzanne's account and the reported contributions of Marcus Fair, Stuart, Fiona Colley and Professor Beth Watts-Cobbe.

2. Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (2025). Tenancy sustainment and complex needs: A rapid evidence assessment. Supports the evidence that homelessness can interact with employment, health, substance dependency and other complex needs, and that these difficulties can affect someone's ability to sustain accommodation.

3. Department for Work and Pensions (2026). Universal Credit if you're homeless. Confirms the alternative arrangements available to Universal Credit claimants who do not have a permanent address, bank account, internet access, email or standard identification.

4. Prime Minister's Office; Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Prime Minister launches national drive to get everyone in for Christmas / Rough Sleeping Programme. Supports the £442 million programme, the commitment to offer people sleeping rough a route off the streets this winter, emergency accommodation, practical support and the planned new homes.

5. BBC (2026). Every rough sleeper in England will be offered accommodation this winter. Supports Burnham's direct statement that he wants to “get everyone in for Christmas”.

6. UK Government (2025). New Year Honours List 2026. Confirms Marcus Fair's role at Eternal Media and his MBE for services to addiction recovery, ex-offenders and tackling homelessness.

7. Homeless Link (2026). Our People. Confirms Fiona Colley's position as Director of Social Change at Homeless Link.

8. Crisis; Heriot-Watt UniversityWatts-Cobbe, B. et al, (2025). The Homelessness Monitor: England 2025. Confirms Professor Beth Watts-Cobbe as an author of the 2025 England Homelessness Monitor.

9. Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, (2025). 'Tenancy sustainment and complex needs: A rapid evidence assessment.' Supports the description of Housing First as an approach in which stable accommodation is provided alongside continuing support for people with complex needs.

10. UK Government (2025). 'A National Plan to End Homelessness' (notably, Housing First Greater Manchester case study). Supports the case study of Tammy, including her previous tenancy, return to rough sleeping, imprisonment, continued Housing First support, treatment engagement, renewed contact with her children and tenancy arranged for release.

11. Sutton-Hamilton, C., Sanders, B., Leith, G. and Dore, A. (2025). ''I felt invisible': Revealing the reality behind hidden homelessness.' Supports the distinction between homelessness and rough sleeping and the discussion of sofa surfing and other forms of hidden homelessness. [Crisis]

12. Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (2025). 'Better Outcomes through Linked Data: Repeat homelessness report.' Supports the finding that around one in six cases in the linked dataset involved repeat homelessness and that repeat homeless households were less likely to secure accommodation expected to last at least 12 months after the relief stage. [UK Government]

Cover photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash