Homelessness reached its most severe levels in decades this year - Louise Reed

Homelessness across all indicators reached its most severe levels in decades this year, and as the founder and chief executive officer of Focus4Hope I see the impact first-hand.

Together with my team I’ve been helping homeless and vulnerable people for several years now.

You don’t get used to it - you just get better at dealing with it and carrying on anyway.

Homelessness is measured differently across the UK but the overall trend is that more people losing their homes, staying homeless for longer, and struggling to get secure accommodation.

The question I’m asked most often is ‘How do you do it?’.

While it can feel futile there are moments that keep you going, for example someone finally trusting you enough to take a hot drink, let you call a GP, or step inside a shelter for the first time in months.

We worked with one recently homeless woman who was living in a Leeds encampment and being exploited by a male rough sleeper.

She’d been bitten by a dog, was extremely frail, and dealing with the consequences of mental and physical abuse.

We worked with her and other Leeds agencies to get her into a better living situation and she’s now in a women’s refuge.

She’s starting to slowly recover and had her hair done for the first time in weeks recently.

It shows what’s possible when you work together against all the odds, but without adequate funding and preventative policies, it’s becoming harder and harder to reach the people who need us.

When it comes to the scale of the problem, we’ve watched a huge escalation unfold between 2024 and 2026 with profound dismay, every major indicator showing significant increases.

In real terms, every number is a person losing their home, a family having to live in single rooms, a child growing up in a B&B.

The fallout that follows - addiction, plummeting mental health etc - is often far more costly to society in human and financial terms.

The factors driving the crisis include Section 21 “no‑fault” evictions, rising private rents and frozen Local Housing Allowance, a chronic shortage of social housing, and cost‑of‑living pressures.

Weather events such as the recent heatwave worsen the problem, exposing inequalities around who can stay safe and who can't.

Challenges include tents and sleeping pods becoming dangerously overheated, the impact of sleeping on hot surfaces such as tarmac, and heat exhaustion from having to carry belongings everywhere to prevent theft. It’s heart-breaking to see it first-hand.

Policy responses such as the Renters’ Rights Act are underway, but I worry about ways to respond meaningfully while we wait for the benefits to materialise.

Nobody ends up on the street by choice.

Homelessness is often just the house of cards that finally collapses.

Louise Reed is founder and CEO of Focus4Hope, a West Yorkshire charity that supports vulnerable people through crisis intervention, community outreach, and practical help. The organisation is approaching its 10th anniversary – tickets for its fundraising ball can be purchased at focus4hope.co.uk/events/