2016 Annual Review of Support for Single Homeless People in England

For the past nine years, Homeless Link has produced an annual review of the available support for single homelessness in England. Single homeless people are less likely than families to be to be entitled to housing from their local authority, and therefore often rely on homelessness charities for accommodation, advice and other forms of support. 

Support for Single Homeless People in England: Annual Review 2016  provides vital evidence for services, commissioners, policy-makers and others planning support for people who become homeless and is the only available data source of its kind on the homelessness sector in England.

The findings are based on key data sources, including surveys of 394 accommodation providers and 53 day centres from across England, data from the Homeless England database, national government statistics and detailed service case studies.

The report provides a detailed overview of the nature and availability of key services, the challenges and opportunities faced by the sector, the needs and circumstances of the people accessing services, and the various ways in which the sector helps people to move out of homelessness and achieve other positive outcomes in their lives.

Key findings

Availability and use of homelessness services

• There are 1,185 accommodation projects in England, a decrease of 5% on the previous year.
• There are a total of 35,727 bed spaces in these accommodation projects, a decrease of 2% on the previous year.
• There are 214 day centres in England, an increase of 3% on the previous year.
• People in accommodation projects had a range of needs including complex needs (33%), mental health needs (32%), and needs related to drug use (31%).
• Reasons for projects turning people away included 66% due to the project being full and 46% because individual’s needs were too complex.

Resources and delivery of services

• Nearly all accommodation projects (93%) reported that some of their income comes from Housing Benefit payments from residents.
• The primary source of funding for more than half of projects (56%) was housing-related support, which is funded by local authorities.
• 47% of accommodation projects reported a decrease in funding. Of these, the average decrease was 19%. 8% reported an increase in funding and 23% reported no change.
• Accommodation projects reported providing a range of support services, with the most common being life skills, resettlement support and help with basic needs (93%, 90% and 87% of services respectively).

Innovation and changes to services

• Homelessness services have been exploring and adopting innovative models of service delivery to support their clients.
• A range of approaches are being used to improve the availability of accommodation and other longer term options. Seven out of ten accommodation projects reported they are either using or exploring shared accommodation schemes, 65% are using or exploring rent deposit and bond schemes and 39% are using or exploring Housing First.
• Social investment methods such as social bonds are not currently being widely used as only 16% reported using or exploring them.
• The proportion of services funded via Payment by Results remains low (4%) with strongly held negative views of this kind of funding. Staff in the sector sometimes consider these to be ‘risky’ or unsuitable for funding provision for homeless people.

Outcomes and moving on

• Around a third of projects reported that their clients are engaged in money management activities and meaningful activities and 25% reported engagement in training or education.
• The most common outcome was moving into independent or supported accommodation (35% of clients).
• Access to move-on accommodation is an issue. Across the sample, 30% of clients were ready to move but were not currently able to do so.
• The principle barrier to moving on was a lack of affordable accommodation – a third of services reported this to be the main barrier (34%).
• People leaving accommodation projects were likely to move into social housing (22%) or return to family and friends (19%).
• To support clients who have left their service, more than six in ten services reported that they offer informal support, such as contacting people on an ad hoc basis (63%), and 61% provide floating support on a regular basis.