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News in Brief : Issue 160

February 01 2026

News in brief by the Pavement Team

No vacancy

A Holiday Inn Express in Manchester refused two men from staying in their pre-booked hotel rooms after identifying them as homeless. Two Brews charity volunteer Amanda Thompson, who booked the rooms, told the BBC the men were refused entry because the hotel doesn’t allow homeless people to stay, saying “it’s company policy”. Hotel staff were wrong, of course, and a grovelling apology has since been made by a spokesperson on behalf of Holiday Inn. According to the spokesperson, “this incident is not in keeping with our policy of welcoming all and should have been handled differently.” The men were refused their rooms on an early January night this year, with the temperature outside a freezing -6c. Happily, the men were able to secure a room that night at a Travelodge in Moss Side.


New landlords

Homelessness charity Crisis is planning to purchase properties in the UK, saying it can no longer rely on access to ever-dwindling existing social housing stock. It will be the first time in the charity’s 60-year history it will act as a landlord. Chief executive Matt Downie told the Guardian in late 2025 the charity will fundraise for the project, noting “We [Crisis] wouldn’t be doing this unless the wheels had come off the homelessness and housing system.” He went on to explain the project will pilot in London and Newcastle, aiming “to get to at least 1,000 homes in the first phase, with Housing First tenancy support teams in the two cities ready to go to support people. But the ambition is to move to something even bigger so that we can demonstrate that the solution to homelessness is housing.”



Homeless, Not Hopeless is a podcast that explores real stories from people who have experienced homelessness and are working to rebuild their lives. Through honest conversations, the podcast looks at what helps people move forward, whether they grew up feeling overwhelmed, took an unsteady path into adulthood, or had to restart after hitting a low point. The podcast focuses on practical steps, support systems and the moments that shift someone’s direction. The aim is for listeners to hear what has worked for others, notice where their own experiences resonate and see that although life doesn’t start equally for everyone, progress and change are still possible. It’s not about perfect answers, it’s about exploring real journeys toward stability, confidence and independence. Homeless, Not Hopeless is co-produced by staff and residents of the Single Homeless Project, combining lived experience and professional insight to offer an honest look at homelessness, recovery and resilience. The podcast is available on Spotify and YouTube. If you feel that your story or recovery journey could contribute to the podcast, Homeless, Not Hopeless will be happy to hear from you, please get in touch: AZajac@shp.org.uk


Passport plan

Camden Council in London will offer people sleeping rough ‘personal passports’, used to record information about themselves to share with services. The BBC says the passports were successfully trialled three years ago and will aim to prevent people from having to repeatedly disclose sensitive information, “an exhausting and confusing experience,” a spokesperson for the council said.


Old news

Older generations in the UK are beginning to feel the impact of the escalating housing crisis. A growing number of over-60s are approaching local authorities for homelessness support, with charities pointing to high private rents and lack of social housing affecting pensioners’ ability to find homes. Quoted in the Guardian, Dan Holland, from the Salvation Army’s homelessness services team, explained “not as many people now have a mortgage that they’ve paid off and a roof over their head that they can call their own. Lots more people are renting, relying on housing benefit which has been frozen, so it’s not rocket science, eventually they will end up experiencing homelessness.” Charities including St Mungo’s and Crisis have reported cases of elderly people sleeping for months in their car, people with complex health problems facing homelessness and a rapid increase in over-55s staying in temporary accommodation.


Moved on

A long-standing homeless encampment at Adelphi Terrace in Westminster has mysteriously disappeared, raising concerns for the people who were staying there. In December, the Big Issue published a story about the encampment, featuring powerful portrait photographs of 11 people living there. In total, the magazine counted 30 tents at the encampment late last year. The photographer for the story, Marc Davenant, set up an urgent meeting with Westminster Council on 23 December to discuss the welfare and safety of the people living at the encampment, as he had heard the site would be cleared on 1 January. Before the meeting, however, Davenant was stunned to learn the encampment had already been cleared. He managed to track down a few of the residents at The Connection and one sleeping rough in the area. Two of the more vulnerable members of the encampment have not been seen or heard from since the site was cleared.



The Night Owls and Abstractions exhibition. © Piers Allardyce
Awards season: The 2025 annual Koestler Awards show took place in London’s Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank between October and mid-December. The exhibtion was titled Night Owls and Abstractions, featuring around 200 artworks created by people in criminal justice settings. The works featured in the exhibition were selected from a pool of more than 7,500 entries and include creative writing, painting, sculpture, music and other artforms. Planning for this year’s awards show is already underway, with the theme ‘Roots’. The deadline for entries is Friday 17 April, 2026 and is open to anybody in custody in a UK prison, young offender institution, secure training centre, secure children’s home, immigration removal centre, or high or medium security psychiatric hospital or unit; any current client of the National Probation Service, a youth justice service, or the Scottish Criminal Justice Social Work Service; any UK citizen currently in a prison overseas. Enter the 2026 Koestler Awards national competition here: koestlerarts.org.uk/get-involved/koestler-awards/enter-the-koestler-awards


New homes

At the start of the new year 16 families experiencing homelessness in Scotland have been given homes in Glasgow and Edinburgh, as part of a Home Group Scotland collaboration with local authorities in the cities. Six families have moved into homes in South Queensferry, while 10 have secured a home in Tillycairn, Glasgow. According to Scottish Housing News (SHN), a further eight families will move into Farrier Fields, Edinburgh in March 2026. Bryony Willett, director of the housing associaton Home Group Scotland, told SHN: “Being able to provide affordable housing like this is why we work in social housing. Through these, and previous partnerships, we have been able to provide new homes to local families desperately in need of a place to call their own.”


Dying shame

More than 100 people died while staying in temporary accommodation in Scotland during 2024-25, the Daily Record reported in late December 2025. Overall, 118 people died while living in temporary accommodation. Meanwhile, figures show 17,240 households were staying in council-funded properties in March 2025, a record high. Anas Sarwar, leader of Scottish Labour, said “the SNP ought to be ashamed of this record.” He added that “more than 100 people [have been] robbed of the chance to live out their days in a home of their own.” Resonding to Sarwar’s comments, SNP Housing Secretary Màiri McAllan defended the party’s record: “This government has delivered more than 141,000 affordable homes. In the last four years of the Labour-led government in Scotland, only six new council houses were built compared to the last four years, under this Government, when 8,572 new council houses were built.”


Expert advice

An expert from Heriot-Watt University has warned a return to dormitory-style night shelters in Scotland poses a risk to people experiencing homelessness. Research by Professor Beth Watts-Cobbe suggested so-called “shared air” shelters can lead to worse health outcomes and users being exposed to violence and drug harm. The research comes as pressure to open more night shelters in Scotland mounts. Dormitory-style homeless shelters have been gradually phased out following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, to the point that Homeless Project Scotland runs the country’s only continually active night shelter. Its chief executive, Colin McInnes, told the Press Association he strongly disagreed that shelters should be avoided altogether. He argued: “The suggestion that avoiding shelters is inherently safer than providing emergency cover ignores the real-world consequences of inaction… A key issue with much of this debate is that it is being led almost entirely from an academic and policy perspective, rather than from lived experience or frontline reality.”

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February – March 2026 : Progress

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