Last updated: 05 December 2025
For the past 12 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 People Experiencing Single Homelessness in England: Annual Review 2019 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 387 accommodation providers and 72 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 an estimated 991 accommodation projects in place for individuals experiencing single homelessness in England.
- A total of 181 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 (-9%) and the number of day centres (-3%)
- The number of bed spaces in accommodation projects in England has decreased by 3% over the past year, and now stands at 33,898.
- 55% of responding accommodation services reported no change in funding over the period from April 2018 – March 2019, with 27% reporting a decrease, and 19% 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 experiencing homelessness continue to 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
- 74% of accommodation projects provide support to clients once they have moved on from the service, of which 75% provide informal move on support.
- In April 2018 – March 2019, 54% of people accessing accommodation services moved on positively from services. 16% exited in an unplanned move.
- Moving into employment remains a challenge for those accessing accommodation services.
- People accessing accommodation services face significant structural barriers in moving on from homelessness services. Accommodation providers reported that 24% of their clients were ready to move on but were unable to. Of this total, 36% had been waiting six months or longer.
- Respondents identified the lack of accommodation available at the Local Housing Allowance rate (72%) and being excluded from housing providers due to ‘previous debt, or rent arrears’ (70%) as significant contributory barriers.
*Since the data was collected for the 2019 Annual Review, the homelessness sector has faced an unprecedented challenge with the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. At the time of publication, it is too early to understand the implications that this will have on individuals, services and staff across England. However, this is likely to be profound, with the capacity, resourcing, practice and composition of services likely to look very different in 12 months time.
