Temporary fix

Council spending in England on B&B accommodation for homeless people increased by 22% in 2025/26, figures published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) show. The MHCLG report was released in September and shows local authorities spent a net total of £467.5m on this kind of temporary accommodation in the year to March, up from an inflation-adjusted £383.6m in 2024/25 – an increase of £83.8m. The Press Association reports net spending by councils on all types of temporary accommodation for the homeless plus administration costs rose by 2% year-on-year. The figure includes a £494.3m spend on nightly paid, privately managed accommodation, down from £622.6m the previous year. Furthermore, spending on hostels, which can include refuges, was down by almost a third to £26.2m from £37.8m.

Poster for Full Circle. © The People’s Recovery Project 
A new exhibition by members of The People’s Recovery Project opens in October. Full Circle features the creative work of community members and their inspirational stories of recovery. The exhibition is open daily 7 to 13 October 2026, 10am to 6pm at House of Annetta, 25 Princelet Street, London, E1 6QH. A private fashion show will be held on 8 October, showcasing garments made by members of The People’s Recovery Project and featuring catwalks, music, spoken word and talks. The People’s Recovery Project is a charity working with people recovering from substance use issues and experiencing homelessness. For more information visit its website: thepeoplesrecoveryproject.org

Outside in

In late August, the Outside Project was awarded £594,322 funding to deliver a pan-London LGBTIQA+ housing outreach service. The award comes from the government’s Ending Homelessness in Communities Fund and will cover 2026-2029. With the money, the Outside Project aims to deliver specialist outreach, housing casework and advocacy for LGBTIQA+ people who are sleeping rough, experiencing homelessness or have insecure housing.

Panned plan

The Conservatives revealed plans in August to ban foreign nationals from social housing. As part of the proposal, the Tories vowed to end new tenancies for all foreign nationals, as well as current tenancies for couples where neither person is a UK, Irish or EU citizen with settled status. The party claims the move would free up 228,144 homes. However, Sarah Elliott, the chief executive of housing charity Shelter, told the Guardian: “These divisive plans would brutally kick people out of their homes, including thousands of families and pensioners who have lived in them for decades. And let’s not forget that social tenants pay rent, which goes back to the public purse and into society. It is completely senseless to ruin people’s lives, drive up homelessness and put extreme pressure on councils. This policy does nothing to deliver new social homes, which is what we desperately need.”

Last year’s vigil. © the Pavement 
The annual vigil organised by the Museum of Homelessness to remember those who died whilst homeless will be held on 15 October. The vigil is held opposite Downing Street on Whitehall, London and begins at 6pm, with the names of those who have passed while experiencing homelessness during 2025 read out at 6:45pm. All are welcome to attend the vigil and people unable to make it are encouraged to light a candle on 15 October in remembrance. 

Free laundry

A new partnership between arts charity Quiet Down There and Justlife, the UK charity supporting people in temporary accommodation was launched in September. The collaboration creates a new model of community support, bringing together free laundry, creativity and temporary accommodation services under one roof. The collaboration will expand Quiet Down There’s Harriet’s Press project – a free laundry service. Harriett's Press will now have a permanent home at the Justlife Hub in Brighton, with greater capacity to meet growing demand. Based on average prices at Brighton launderettes, one weekly wash and dry costs around £520 a year, or £43 a month. At Harriett's Press, washing and drying is free. Detergent is also free and no referral is needed.

Drug warning

A BBC report in September highlighted the rise of synthetic drugs in Scotland. As efforts are made to reduce the rise in drug-related deaths across the country, there has been an explosion in the supply of new synthetic cannabinoids and opioids, increasing the risk of fatal overdoses. Scotland is the drugs death capital of Europe and annual figures show an increase in deaths from last year. Police say organised crime groups are increasingly mixing new, synthetic substances with existing drugs to maximise their profits. Gareth Balmer, the  national harm reduction lead at the drug, alcohol and mental health charity With You, told the BBC: “This is a frightening new landscape… I don't think drugs have ever been as risky or as dangerous as they are now.”

© Homeless Diamonds
A very happy birthday to the Pavement’s friends at Homeless Diamonds, the free arts magazine for people experiencing homelessness who are associated with St Mungo’s. The charity has produced 60 issues of the A4-sized arts magazine, which has featured works by friends of the Pavement including Chris Bird and Michelle Christopher. For 20 years, Homeless Diamonds has championed hundreds of artists with lived experience of homelessness and showcased their incredible works. Congratulations to all those who have had work featured in the magazine and to all involved in its production. 

Support service

For more than a year, a partnership between Turning Point Scotland and Fife Council has been helping people at risk of homelessness access support at the right time. The partnership encourages Turning Point Scotland community navigators to provide practical, person-centred support, helping homeless people and people at risk of homelessness navigate the housing system and make referrals to other services, such as health support. Scotland Housing News reports the support workers are present at places where people already live, study and seek help. Community navigator support is available through four morning drop-in sessions each week: Fife College Kirkcaldy campus on Mondays; Fife College Dunfermline campus on Wednesdays; The Maxwell Centre, Cowdenbeath on Thursdays; The Clearing, Cowdenbeath on Fridays. 

Council claps back

Edinburgh Council has rejected media reports that it prioritises people with leave to remain for housing. It also hit out at claims that councils across the country are using empty properties to house asylum seekers, pointing out that providing accommodation to those seeking asylum is the duty of the UK Home Office, not local authorities. The statement arrived in September, days after a report by The Telegraph headlined “Asylum seekers bumped to top of council housing list”. STV News detailed the Edinburgh Council response, which confirmed that once granted indefinite leave to remain, an individual is “afforded the same process, support and respect as every other applicant… it is entirely false to say people in this position have been prioritised for housing.”

© Kineara
A London charity supporting individuals and families facing housing insecurity, homelessness and other challenges launched a fundraising appeal in September to keep the vital service running. Southwark-based Kineara is aiming to raise £20,000 to stay operational and held a fundraising event on 25 September, bringing together local businesses, community organisations, artists and housing professionals. The event featured an art showcase, poetry and live music. Learn more about Kineara and the services it offers on its website: kineara.co.uk

Five year plan

The Scottish Government has announced a prevention-focused approach to reducing homelessness and provide rapid rehousing over the next five years. Holyrood unveiled plans to move from “crisis management to prevention” in September, including an additional 1,500 Housing First tenancies to support people with complex care needs into permanent housing. Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice and Housing Shirley-Anne Somerville, was quoted by Glasgow Live saying: “The best way to end homelessness is to prevent it from happening in the first place. That is why we are shifting our approach from crisis management to prevention and rapid rehousing. We will do all we can over this Parliament to help people off the streets and end the use of unsafe and harmful temporary accommodation.”

Suspended

The City of Edinburgh Council’s Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work Committee has agreed to end the suspension of the council’s allocations policy. The suspension of the allocations policy allowed more than 350 households, including 200 families, to be moved out of unsuitable temporary accommodation and directly into a settled tenancy. The move to end the suspension follows progress made in reducing the number of void council homes, alongside an increase in the supply of suitable temporary accommodation. Councillor Tim Pogson told Scottish Housing News: “There is still much to be done, but I’m encouraged by the progress being made on the Housing Emergency Action Plan, which demonstrates tangible improvements being made.”

In a nutshell

• On Monday 29 June, the Vagrancy Act was repealed by the government
• Successive governments had promised to get rid of the Georgian-era act, first 
  introduced in 1824
• The law criminalised homelessness and was regularly used up to its repeal
• Legislation, such as the Crime and Policing Act of 2026, continues to punish people experiencing homelessness.

The Vagrancy Act was passed in 1824 to deal with the burgeoning number of homeless troops returning from the war in France. By anyone’s standards that is cold.

Then all of a sudden, on a Monday morning in late June, the Georgian-era legislation was finally repealed.

For over 200 years the bill criminalised homelessness, arming authorities with powers to move on, fine and even arrest people sleeping rough. Upwards of 3,800 people were arrested under the act in England and Wales from 2018 to 2022.

Apart from the punitive side of the bill, with people being fined up to a thousand quid, the act encouraged people experiencing homelessness to keep a low profile, effectively pushing them away from the services they desperately needed to survive.

Interestingly, I had an impromptu picnic yesterday with my mate Phil who sleeps in the local  park and spends his days outside a Tesco, helping shoppers with their trolleys and carrying shopping bags for change.

As we brazenly sipped our vanilla vodka, apple juice, tonic water and ice on the doorstep of one of South London’s biggest superstores, we got to talking about the Vagrancy Act. Not only was Phil unaware that it had been repealed, he didn’t know it existed in the first place.

He’s been homeless for many years, so of course he’s been aware for a long time that the police can fuck with him. Phil is a bright guy with substance use problems. He tells me he doesn’t need to know his rights, because the police do what they want anyway and I’ve got a tendency to believe him. Instead of knowing the law, he protects himself with street-smarts, instinct and know-how.

Of course, he’s had his fair share of run-ins with the police and some of the stuff he has told me is shocking in its brutality and flagrant abuse of his rights. But he has come to accept it and takes some pride in the way he deals with it all.

“Mat,” he said, “I know how to avoid ‘em, I’ve got eyes in the back of my head. This act [repealing the Vagrancy Act], whatever it is, will make no difference and the people that most need help, who are a bit unstable, will always be the ones that get grief.”

He isn’t wrong. You can take away the powers of the Vagrancy Act and make efforts to decriminalise homelessness, but there is still a raft of public order-facing legislation that gives cops the power to arrest people for next to nothing. There are people on the streets with mental health issues who will continue to run into trouble with the type of police officers who revel in escalation.  

The truly awful reality is that the type of trauma-informed training that would help officers de-escalate these confrontations is most often only received when it is mandated as a punishment for brutalising someone. It’s like forcing criminal offenders with addiction problems to go to Narcotics Anonymous meetings – it just ain’t gonna work.

All the legislation in the world is useless without the skills to apply those laws effectively. However, saying that, a decent legal framework is an essential starting point.

Speaking of, legislation is in place that will continue many of the worst aspects of the Vagrancy Act.

Dispersal orders such as Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPO) and Community Protection Notices are regularly issued by local authorities trying to remove people from public space.

The Crime and Policing Act of 2026 allows for people sleeping rough to be handed dispersal orders, prohibiting ‘spatial trespass’.

Under the 2014 Crime and Policing Act, Anti Social Behaviour Injunctions are handed to people for rough sleeping.

Meanwhile, PSPOs can often carry punitive fines of £100 which, going unpaid, can balloon to court fines of up to £1,000.

Somehow all of this makes perfect sense to the people charged with designing legislation and enforcing it.

Farewell, then, the Vagrancy Act and good riddance. But people experiencing homelessness and sleeping rough will continue to be targeted and criminalised by legislation. Maybe one day the harsher elements of the 2026 Crime and Policing Act will be replaced or done away with altogether. Let’s just hope we don’t have to wait another 200 years… .

Council chaos

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has ordered Hounslow Council in London to pay a woman £7,100 in compensation, after all of her belongings were thrown away when she was evicted from her home, even though the council promised to look after them. Miss X was issued an eviction notice in spring 2024. A council assessment recorded she had several health conditions that affected her day-to-day life. After being issued the notice, Hounslow notified Miss X that it owed her a ‘prevention duty’, meaning the council should take steps to stop her becoming homeless. By September 2024, the notice had expired, with no evidence the landlord planned to proceed with the eviction. However, in mid-October 2024, Miss X received a notice that her landlord had applied to court for a possession order and was evicted by bailiffs in May 2025. She initially went to stay with family, while the council offered her a room at a hotel as interim accommodation. The Standard reports that, rather than providing appropriate housing, the council moved Miss X between three temporary properties. The council was aware of her mobility issues, but placed her in properties that did not meet her physical needs. The majority of the final £7,100 compensation was awarded to recognise the extensive time she was forced to live in these unsuitable homes. On the day of the eviction, the council failed to inform the moving company they had arranged for Miss X in time, leading to the landlord removing the belongings. Miss X lost all of her possessions. She was compensated £500 for lost items and £300 for distress caused.

B&B lawbreak

London’s Ealing Council broke the law by placing a disabled pregnant mother and her child in temporary accommodation for over a year, the local government watchdog has found. The woman uses a wheelchair and has complex medical needs. She originally approached the council in February 2024 because she was homeless. Legally, families with children can be housed in B&B accommodation for a maximum of six weeks in England. To make matters worse, the accommodation had stairs, breaching accessibility guidelines for council-housed people reliant on wheelchairs. The ombudsman found the council failed to act fast enough upon receiving medical information from the woman’s midwife to assess her priority band. The delay meant that she was unable to bid on suitable properties, according to the BBC. The council apologised and will pay £6,000 in compensation for the impact of the accommodation, together with a further £150 for the distress.

© the Pavement
Checkmates: The first-ever Streets Legends Chess Cup at the Museum of Homelessness (MoH) took place on 17 and 18 July, at the MoH Manor House Lodge site. A team tournament was held on the Friday and an open singles tournament on the Saturday. Alongside the competition, chess sets were available to visitors wanting a casual game. Players competed for cash prizes, MoH goodie bags and the Street Legends Chess Cup. Congratulations to everybody who took part. Check out the MoH website for more community events coming up: museumofhomelessness.org

New record

Official figures gathered by Crisis show the number of people sleeping rough in England rose to a record 4,793 last summer. The figure is widely understood to be an underestimate. Including people sleeping in hostels and other temporary accommodation, the official homeless figure currently stands at more than 180,000 people in England. A joint report by the thinktank IPPR North and Crisis warns that the number of people experiencing homelessness in England will rise by 25% – equivalent to about 50,000 people – by 2030 without swift, sustained action. The analysis, based on government figures, also suggests that the number of people owed a homelessness duty by their local authority will rise from 182,540 last year to 231,299 in 2029-30 unless radical action is taken. The report calls for a national expansion of Andy Burnham’s Greater Manchester “A Bed Every Night” programme, which aims to provide a bed and personalised support to every person at risk of sleeping rough in the city. Crisis is also calling for support for councils to bring long-term empty homes back into use.

New direction

In July, the UK welcomed its seventh prime minister in a decade when Andy Burnham replaced the outgoing Keir Starmer. Burnham was made Labour party leader the week before Starmer formally resigned. Although the pair represent the same political party, Burnham has promised the “biggest changes in 40 years” to the UK by his government. Encouragingly, Burnham used his first speech as prime minister to deliver a message on the homelessness crisis. Standing outside Downing Street, Burnham told reporters: “I will soon go through that door behind me and issue my first instruction – to end rough sleeping in our country.” As Mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham introduced the “A Bed Every Night” programme, which set out to get people sleeping rough into shelter. It remains to be seen what his plans are to end rough sleeping on a national scale. Watch this space.

Pop-up

In late June, Streets Kitchen ran a pop-up outreach service in north London, inviting people to eat, drink and access services that could be helpful to them. On site, volunteers offered sun cream and bottles of water to guests, while Naloxone kits and opioid awareness information was also shared. Streets Kitchen says it is planning similar pop-ups through the summer and has announced that this year’s StreetsFest – the annual festival of services, support and entertainment for people experiencing homelessness – will take place on Wednesday 2 September.

• Keep up to date with Streets Kitchen and the upcoming StreetsFest at streetskitchen.org

Upstreaming service

The Upstream Homelessness Prevention Fund learning report found almost 1,000 people were supported and 662 households were prevented from being affected by the homelessness crisis in Scotland in a pilot scheme to evaluate how to carry out the upcoming ‘Ask and Act’ prevention duties. The report revealed findings from seven social landlord and third sector partnerships who participated in the scheme, estimating that the pilot saved costs of almost £10m. The pilot implemented routine ‘Asking’ at several intervals, as well as rapid cash payments to tackle issues, stopping evictions, decreasing legal costs, developing engagement and enabling frontline staff to rapidly prevent crisis for people. Scotland Housing News reports the scheme ran between 2025-26 with £1m funding made available to partners by the Scottish Government.

© Antropia
Behind the mask: Since 2024, Antropia has run weekly Portal Projects art workshops for people affected by homelessness at the Swiss Church, London. Members of the Portal Projects have co-designed public artworks installed at the Swiss Church, St Paul's Actors' Church and Phoenix Garden. One of the works, pictured above, features a green bronze mask with a QR code linking directly to a curated list of support services and resources for people experiencing homelessness. To attend Antropia Portal Projects art workshops, visit the Swiss Church on 79 Endell Street, London, WC2H 9DY on Tuesdays, 9 – 11am. 

Misinformation debunked

Scotland’s Housing Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville has condemned what she terms “misinformation” on refugees, reiterating people seeking asylum were not prioritised over Scottish citizens. Speaking in June, Somerville addressed claims by Reform UK Scotland that the end of the local connection rule in 2022 has seen migrants presenting as homeless travel from England to be housed in Scotland. Both the Scottish Government and the housing charity Shelter have made clear the claims are false. Somerville told The National: “Local authorities assess each case based on statutory duties and household need... These rights apply equally to all those who are homeless through no fault of their own.” Meanwhile, Gordon Llewellyn-MacRae, interim director of the Shelter Scotland, said: “Everyone who is homeless in Scotland is entitled to have their case assessed fairly, with dignity, and according to their legal rights.”

Living in fear

A survey carried out for Everyone Home collective – a group of more than 40 organisations working around housing and homelessness – found that 35% of 1,000 respondents from Scotland feared losing their home over the next three years. The rate rises to a staggering 49% for respondents aged between 18 and 24. A spokesperson for Scotland’s largest tenants’ union, Living Rent, told the Morning Star: “The fear of losing our homes and becoming homeless is never far from any tenant’s mind. Most of us have been forced out of our flats or communities because landlords increased the rent or evicted us, and we know far too well the debilitating impact this has on the rest of our lives.”

Children at risk

An investigation by The Ferret has found that over 2,000 children under two years old were placed in temporary accommodation in Scotland during 2024 and 2025, despite evidence this puts them at higher risk of health complications or even death. Responding to the report, Scotland's commissioner for children and young people has called on the government to take action to end the use of unsuitable temporary accommodation for children. Earlier this year research by the National Child Mortality Database found that 104 children have died in temporary accommodation in the UK since 2019, with 76 under the age of one.