Last updated: 05 December 2025
For the past 11 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 2018 provides vital evidence of the support provided by these services to inform policy and practice. It is the only available data source of its kind on the homelessness sector in England.
The findings are based on five key data sources, including surveys of 362 accommodation providers and 54 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 of homelessness services
- There are currently 1,085 accommodation projects in place for single homelessness in England.
- A total of 186 day centres currently operate throughout England.
- Homeless England data indicates that over the past year, there has been a reduction in both the number of accommodation projects (-3%) and the number of day centres (-5%).
- The number of bed spaces in accommodation projects in England has increased by 1% over the past year, and now stands at 34,900.
- 53% of responding accommodation services reported no change in funding over the period from April 2017 – March 2018, with 30% reporting a decrease, and 17% reporting an increase.
Delivery of services
- Accommodation providers and day centres provide a wide variety of services to help people address their needs. These services are delivered either in-house on the service premises, or via referral to an external agency.
- People who are homeless face difficulties in accessing mental health services.
- Services offered in-house are less likely to have access barriers than services offered externally.
Outcomes, move on, and service development
- 82% of accommodation projects provide informal move on support.
- Among people accessing accommodation providers, moving into employment remains a challenge.
- People accessing accommodation services face significant structural barriers in moving on from homelessness services. Respondents identified the lack of affordable housing as both a contributory barrier (77%) and the main barrier (30%).
