Two sets of Government figures released today (Thursday 26th February) show soaring levels of homelessness across England.  

The annual rough sleeping snapshot shows that a record high number of people (4,793) slept rough on a single night in England in Autumn 2025 – up 56% compared to three years ago. 

The data shows: 

• An estimated 4,793 people slept rough on a single night in Autumn 2025, the highest since records began. This is up from 4,667 the year before and 3,069 three years ago.  

• More women were seen sleeping on the streets, an 8% rise on the previous year, from 680 to 733. 
• Overall, the North East and North West regions reported the highest increases in rates of people rough sleeping since 2024. The North East rates rose by 31% on last year and 158% on three years ago. Rates of rough sleeping in the North West rose 20% compared to last year and 74% compared to three years earlier. 

In addition to today’s data on rough sleeping, the Government has separately released figures for the number of households seeking council support for homelessness between July and September 2025. This shows a staggering 175,990 children living in emergency accommodation in England at the end of last September – the 11th record high in a row. This is a 7% increase on the same period in 2024.  Overall, there are 134,760 households in temporary accommodation – also a record high. 

While the overall number of households seeking support from the council who are found to be experiencing or at risk of homelessness has decreased slightly (down 3% to 81,360), roughly 900 people a day are still facing homelessness and in need of council assistance in England. 

Faced with today’s findings, Crisis is calling for the Westminster Government to urgently ramp up social housing delivery and unfreeze housing benefit so that people on lower incomes can afford to pay their rent.  

Despite ministers pledging to invest £39 bn in social and affordable housing over the next ten years, figures released this month show that just over 17,000 social homes were delivered in England last year - far below the 90,000 per year that experts say are needed to address the housing crisis. Overall, there was a net loss of nearly 4,000 - more than double the amount lost in the previous year. 

The charity also urges ministers to address gaps in welfare which are causing people on low incomes to lose their homes as only 2.4% of private rental properties in England are affordable for people receiving housing benefit. At the end of last year, the UK Government introduced a homelessness strategy which pledged to halve the number of people rough sleeping long-term and included measures to prevent homelessness among people leaving prisons and hospitals.  

Today, the UK Government announced over £50 million for tackling homelessness and rough sleeping. Crisis welcomes this funding, and urges the Government to ensure that the additional money announced to tackle rough sleeping is invested in programmes like Housing First, which is proven to end long-term rough sleeping.  

The yearly rough sleeping snapshot is conducted by councils with help from outreach workers, local charities and community groups. While it offers a good idea of changes year on year, other measures provide a more accurate number of people forced to sleep rough, including women who are often hidden from public view for safety reasons.  

Research by Crisis and Heriot-Watt University estimates that the real number of people sleeping rough in England is more than three times as high as this snapshot suggests, with more than 15,000 people estimated to have slept rough in 2024. 

Matt Downie, Chief Executive of Crisis, said: “Today’s figures paint a bleak picture of the state of the nation. People are being forced to sleep on the streets at unprecedented levels, exposed to danger and violence. Thousands more people are then hidden from the official statistics, particularly women forced to sleep rough.   

“The Government must drastically increase the supply of genuinely affordable homes. We need to pull every lever possible to deliver more social housing, including bringing forward investment to build social homes now, setting minimum targets and repurposing empty homes. There was a net loss of nearly 4,000 social homes in England last year, twice as many as we lost the year before. With thousands of people, including children, without a safe and stable home, ministers need to be delivering up to 90,000 new social homes a year – not moving backwards.  

“And to prevent homelessness increasing yet further, the Government could also decide tomorrow to unfreeze housing benefit so more people can avoid the trauma of losing their home. We need to see homelessness being treated like the national emergency it is.” 

-Ends- 

Notes to Editor 

Annual Rough Sleeping Snapshot background: 

Rough sleeping snapshot in England: Autumn 2025 can be found here 

How the count is conducted: 

The government’s annual rough sleeping count is based on a snapshot of people seen rough sleeping on a single night, either through a physical street count, an evidence-based estimate by local agencies of the number of people sleeping rough in a local area, or an evidence-based estimate with a spotlight count. 

Since May 2023, the government also publishes quarterly releases of a new set of metrics designed to better understand how far rough sleeping is prevented where possible, and where it does occur it is rare, brief and non-recurring. The latest rough sleeping data framework can be found here:  

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rough-sleeping-data-framework-december-2024   

These figures are a small part of a much bigger picture. Rough sleeping is the most visible form of homelessness and while tackling it is vital, there are currently tens of thousands of homeless people hidden from view, sleeping on floors and sofas or stuck in hostels, shelters and B&Bs. 

Statutory homelessness in England 

The quarterly statistics for statutory homelessness assessments and activities in England between 1 July and 30 September 2025 can be found here. These statistics also report on households in temporary accommodation under the statutory homelessness duty in England on 30 September 2025. 

Research into rough sleeping by Crisis and Heriot-Watt University  

A landmark study by Crisis and Heriot-Watt University – the England Homelessness Monitor – was released in November 2025. It found that more than 15,000 people slept rough in England in 2024 alone, more than three times higher than the rough sleeping snapshot states. 

You can find more details about the report and methodology by clicking here. 

Women’s Rough Sleeping Census   

Women experiencing street homelessness are often hidden from public view due to safety reasons and therefore excluded from official numbers.  

The women’s rough sleeping census was introduced by Solace, the Single Homeless Project, and Change Grow Live to paint a more accurate picture for this demographic. 

The third annual Women’s Rough Sleeping Census was published on 3 July 2025 and found that over half (54%) of women surveyed reported sleeping rough in the types of public spaces that would not have been included in official data collection and therefore unlikely to receive support from outreach teams.  

To read the complete Women’s Rough Sleeping Census report, click here.