The Reality of Rough Sleeping in 2025: The Numbers Keep Rising—So Why Aren’t We Fixing It?

Picture this: it’s a cold night in London. You walk past a row of shopfronts, their bright lights casting long shadows on the pavement. Huddled in the doorways are people wrapped in sleeping bags, cardboard beneath them for insulation, faces turned away from the world. You might wonder—how did we get here? And more importantly, why is it getting worse?

It’s 2025, and rough sleeping in England has risen for the fourth year in a row. The latest figures show 4,667 people sleeping rough on a single night, a 20% increase from last year and almost as high as the 2017 peak.

But this isn’t just about numbers. Behind every statistic is a person. Someone who was once a child with dreams. Someone who, for reasons ranging from family breakdown to mental health struggles, addiction, eviction, or simply being priced out of housing, ended up with nowhere to go.

The Reality of Rough Sleeping in 2025

The rough sleeping crisis is more than just visible homelessness—it’s a sign of a broken system. Here’s what we know:

• Most rough sleepers are men, over the age of 26, and British-born. Homelessness isn’t just about chaotic street living; many people have been bouncing between unstable housing, hostels, and temporary accommodation for years.

• London and the South East are at the epicentre. Nearly half of all rough sleepers are in these regions, where housing costs are unmanageable, and services are stretched beyond capacity.

• The North West is the only region where numbers have fallen. And that’s not a coincidence—it’s the result of deliberate policy decisions in places like Manchester.

Which brings us to ‘Housing First’—a model that’s been working but still isn’t being funded properly.

Housing First: A Proven Solution That’s Still Fighting for Survival

Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, has been leading the charge with ‘Housing First’, a model based on Finland’s approach to homelessness. The idea is simple but transformative:

• Give people a home first—no conditions, no hoops to jump through.

• Then provide support for addiction, mental health, and employment.

This flips the traditional UK model on its head. Right now, many people experiencing homelessness have to prove they’re “housing ready”—staying sober, engaging with mental health services, showing they can manage a tenancy—before they’re offered housing. But here’s the problem: how do you stabilise your life when you don’t even have a door to lock at night?

The Manchester pilot housed 430 people, and the results were clear: stable housing leads to better health, fewer arrests, and higher engagement with support services. Burnham has been pushing for long-term government funding to expand this model—but as of 2025, the future of the scheme is uncertain.

So Why Are We Still Failing?

If solutions exist, why is homelessness still spiralling?

• The housing crisis is worse than ever. Social housing stock is shrinking, private rents are skyrocketing, and even full-time workers can’t afford stable housing. If housing is unaffordable, homelessness will keep rising—it’s that simple.

• Government policies are still reactive, not preventative. The UK spends millions responding to homelessness—emergency shelters, police interventions, crisis healthcare—rather than preventing it in the first place.

• The system is still a maze. Anyone who’s tried to get housing support knows how impossible it is. The endless phone calls, waiting lists, and “you don’t meet the criteria” barriers mean many people give up before they even get help.

The Bottom Line: Homelessness Is a Policy Choice

The UK’s rising rough sleeping figures aren’t inevitable. They’re the result of political decisions, economic failures, and a system that prioritises bureaucracy over people. We know what works: secure housing, long-term support, and policies that tackle the root causes, not just the symptoms.

Greater Manchester’s ‘Housing First’ model proves that change is possible. The question is—will the government step up and fund it nationwide? Or will we be standing here in 2026, shaking our heads at yet another record-breaking year for rough sleeping?

We have to decide: are we okay with this being the norm? Or do we actually want to fix it?