Facts about homelessness

The most visible form of homelessness is people sleeping on the streets.

The number of people sleeping rough is measured separately from statutory homelessness statistics through local authority street counts.

Street counts provide a useful snapshot of the number of people sleeping rough on a single night but are best regarded as indicators of trends, rather than exact numbers of men and women who sleep rough. The annual estimate of the numbers sleeping out in England on any single night is published in September each year.

The 2007 annual estimate found there were 498 people sleeping rough in England on any single night, and 248 of those people were in London. We estimate this represents around 3,000 people sleeping rough in London each year. The figures do show real progress in tackling homelessness since the Rough Sleeper Unit was set up in 1998 but further work is necessary if we are to eliminate rough sleeping altogether.