One in 160 people were estimated to be homeless in England on a given night this year, new research from Shelter has suggested.
The charity said its research into people living in temporary accommodation, sleeping on the streets and living in hostels is “the most comprehensive overview of recorded homelessness in England”.
But its figure of 354,016 is still likely to be an underestimate, it said, as some types of homelessness such as sofa-surfing go unrecorded.
The charity’s estimate for a given night this year is 14% higher than its 2023 estimate of 309,550 people.
The latest total equated to around one in 160 people being homeless in England, which was up from an estimated one in 182 the previous year.
The charity – which described its research as a snapshot of the number of people recorded as homeless on a given night in 2024 – blamed “extortionate private rents” and a “dire lack of genuinely affordable” social homes for “trapping” more people in homelessness.
The latest official figures, published earlier this month by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, showed there were 123,100 households in England in temporary accommodation in the three months to the end of June – a rise of 16.3% on the same period the previous year.
There were 159,380 children in temporary accommodation between April and June this year, those statistics showed.
The Government figures refer to temporary accommodation secured by a local housing authority when a person or family presents to them as homeless, and can take various forms including bed and breakfasts or private housing leased by the council.
Shelter’s estimate is wider, combining people living in council-arranged temporary accommodation, those who have arranged their own temporary accommodation, rough sleepers, single people in hostels but not counted in Government statistics, and figures from Freedom of Information requests it made to councils about numbers in temporary accommodation arranged by social services.
Shelter chief executive Polly Neate said: “As the country prepares to wind down and celebrate the festive season in our homes, it’s unimaginable that 354,000 will spend this winter homeless – many of them forced to shiver on the wet streets or in a mouldy hostel room with their entire family.
“Across England, extortionate private rents combined with a dire lack of genuinely affordable social homes is trapping more and more people in homelessness.
“Parents are spending sleepless nights worrying about their children growing up in cramped and often damaging temporary accommodation, as weeks and months turn into years without somewhere secure for them to call home.”
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “These figures are shocking and they show the devastating reality of the homelessness crisis which we have inherited.
“No-one should have to spend Christmas without a home and this Government is taking urgent action to get us back on track to ending homelessness, including committing £1 billion in funding to support homelessness services.
“We will go even further to fix these housing challenges by building the social and affordable homes we need as part of our Plan for Change while the Deputy Prime Minister is also chairing a new inter-ministerial group dedicated to tackling the root causes of homelessness.”
