Homelessness: ‘Lifestyle choice’ or lifetime of institutional shortcomings?
Shania Hindocha
Homelessness: ‘Lifestyle choice’ or lifetime of institutional shortcomings?
Walking down Tottenham Court Road, it is impossible to remain ignorant to the starkest inequality facing Britain. Despite its glaring visibility in our cities, discussions surrounding homelessness are far and few, often sidelined or entirely forgotten in electoral debates or public policy. Yet, an ugly narrative lurks under the surface - one of individual blame and failure leading to such a situation. Though not immediately obvious, comments around the homeless and drug usage find their origins in archaic framing.
The narrative of individual failure began a long time ago, first institutionalised with the 1824 Vagrancy Act. For 200 years, this legislation has meant rough sleeping is deemed a criminal offence, making it the duty of the police to ‘deal’ with homelessness[1]. The act was implemented in response to soldiers returning from the Napoleonic wars who were unable to provide for themselves. Now, it reflects archaic attitudes that prioritised punitive measures over compassionate care.
The advent of capitalism created ideals such as the ‘American Dream’, wherein anyone could be successful if they worked hard enough. However, the flip side implies people who aren’t successful must just be lazy, and therefore to blame for their own destitution. And politicians’ apathy towards the homeless signals this underlying attitude.
In the late 1980s, Sir George Young, a Conservative MP called homeless people “what you step over when you come out of the opera”.[3]
In the same decade, Margret Thatcher said:
“I think we've been through a period where too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it's the government's job to cope with it… 'I'm homeless, the government must house me.' They're casting their problem on society.”
With this laissez-faire logic, it makes complete sense that the Thatcher administration did not think it was important to fill the massive social housing deficit created by the Right to Buy initiative.
Turn to 2023 and Suella Braverman, then Home Secretary, infamously said:
“We cannot allow our streets to be taken over by rows of tents occupied by people, many of them from abroad, living on the streets as a lifestyle choice.”
So, is becoming homeless a lifestyle choice?
Hopefully by now you have guessed the answer is ‘No’. But, understanding the factors leading to homelessness is still, unsurprisingly, more complicated than ‘they can’t afford a house’.
The first thing to note is that there are multiple brackets of homelessness. Under the Homeless Reduction Act (2018), households that approach their local authority and are owed help are counted as ‘statutory homeless’ and classified as either homeless or ‘threatened with homelessness’ if they are at risk of becoming homeless in the next 56 days. Those that do not approach local authorities but are without secure housing are ‘hidden homeless’.
Lack of affordability is less of a direct contributor to homelessness and near-homelessness than you would think. Local authority-level data show the largest bracket driving homelessness is breakdowns of relationships (shown in purples), followed by loss of rental properties, or ‘assured shorthold tenancies’ (shown in blues).
Figure 1
Source: Homelessness Statistics, Gov.uk
Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/homelessness-statistics
The largest single contributor to homelessness is friends or family being unwilling to accommodate. This could be for a variety of reasons, with LQBTQ+ people disproportionately at risk of fallouts with families[4]. However, interviews by charity Homeless Link with homeless youth revealed that structural factors such as financial hardship, housing, and labour market pressures greatly contribute to family tensions and conflict.[5]
After this, a horrifying number of households are homeless due to domestic abuse. In 2022/23 alone, 27,000 households were made homeless due to violent abuse, and this number has been creeping up since 2018, when records began.
The single largest factor threatening households with homelessness is landlords opting to sell their properties and invoking the ‘no fault evictions’ , or Section 21 clause, a sign of the outrageous lack of rental market security that threatens all of us.
In 2022 alone,10,000 households were threatened with homelessness due to Section 21 notices. The number made homeless or near homeless due to not being able to afford rent (i.e. arrears) is a fraction of this.
Despite persistent lobbying, Britain has seen 13 housing ministers in 10 years and no reform on this policy.[6] Any of us can be served with Section 21 notices after the initial duration of the contract is up. However, many of us are fortunate enough to increase our budget in emergencies. But the most deprived cannot, as they are the first to be priced out of the runaway rental market.
Is staying homeless a lifestyle choice?
Local authorities’ services for the statutory homeless include finding social housing contracts, putting people in temporary housing and offering support for the mental or physical health disabilities that often coincide. While it is great that councils help such a huge number of people, they are far from being able to ‘solve’ homelessness.
The temporary housing system is still riddled with issues. Some families remain in temporary housing for over 10 years, or are confined to single rooms, with babies unable to learn to crawl due to lack of space.[7] When placed in supported housing, households can be housed in hostile accommodation, prohibited from using common spaces such as kitchens, or again subject to the same risk of no-fault evictions.[8] Clearly, councils’ current approach plastering up the aftershocks of institutional failures is flawed.
The number of households seeking assistance from councils nationally is in the hundreds of thousands. While rough sleeping is unmistakably obvious in its tragedy, the actual level of homelessness in Britain is far more prevalent and nearly entirely obscured. And with this volume, a cash-strapped welfare state can only do so much. The decentralisation of homelessness assistance means local councils are forced to plaster up the symptoms of this culmination of societal diseases plunging people into destitution, and they cannot implement preventative policies.
Homelessness will only become more pronounced. After a temporary decrease in numbers in 2020 due to initiatives like 'Everyone In', which saw 15,000 people at risk or on the streets offered stable accommodation during the COVID-19 pandemic, a resurgence in rough sleeping figures spells out the effect of cuts to emergency budgets and stimulus. In Autumn 2023, it was estimated that just under 4,000 people were sleeping rough across the country.[9]
Figure 2
Source: Rough Sleeping Snapshot: autumn 2023, Gov.uk
Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rough-sleeping-snapshot-in-england-autumn-2023/rough-sleeping-snapshot-in-england-autumn-2023
Will they spend their money on drugs?
We now know that drug abuse is rarely the reason for homelessness the UK. Still, the most common cliché about the homeless is that they will squander their money on drugs. So, is it true?
A fraction of homeless households that approached councils had any issues with drug or alcohol dependency, at around 10% for each. Among rough sleepers, drug or alcohol related support needs are higher, at 60%. But it is also the case that around 80% of rough sleepers reported having mental health problems. So perhaps we ought to view these as vulnerabilities, instead of self-gratifying crimes.
Figure 3
Source: Rough Sleeping Questionnaire: initial findings, Gov.uk
Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5fd8e3a18fa8f54d60878af7/Initial_findings_from_the_rough_sleeping_questionnaire_access.pdf
An RCT done in Canada gave 50 rough sleepers $7,500 each. They found that the unconditional cash transfer meant people spent fewer days homeless and increased savings with no increase in temptation goods spending (i.e. drugs).[10] However, they found that people are not keen on giving the homeless money directly.
This paternalistic view is also rooted in the culpability narrative; it makes sense (though perhaps not justifiable) that if you believe a person is homeless because they are bad with money and lazy drug addicts then giving them money is a waste of resources. But, that’s not why people end up homeless.
A British charity, Greater Change, argues that they can support the homeless in finding a maintainable home for just £1,300 per person, with an 86% success rate. They estimate this saves the state £35,000 per person per year.[11]
The way our society views homelessness has led to a system where society’s most disadvantaged can be battered and beaten by institutional failures and economic hardship, end up homeless, and the state is not all that concerned. These issues persist as successive governments prioritise top-down growth over addressing poverty and homelessness, perpetuating a cycle of institutional shortcomings.
It is time to shift the narrative from individual blame to a deeper understanding of the systemic issues at play, along with large scale policy shifts. Without this, the future looks bleak as the ongoing cost of living crisis, rising mental health issues, slow housing market reform, and a string of councils going bankrupt inevitably plunging more households into destitution.
[1] https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-7836/
[2] https://money.cnn.com/2013/12/09/news/economy/america-economic-mobility/
[3] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/mar/09/rough-sleeping-rise-london-homelessness-every-day-struggle#:~:text=The%20theatres%20of%20the%20West,out%20of%20the%20opera%E2%80%9D).
[4] https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/lgbtq-youth-homelessness-survey_uk_6075b033e4b063a4194a0024
[5] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5cab2a5040f0b6752a407311/Homelessness_-_REA.pdf
[6] https://news.sky.com/story/16-housing-ministers-in-13-years-has-it-stopped-the-job-getting-done-13008296
[7] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/09/homeless-kids-england-childhood-temporary-housing-families
[8]https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/council_housing_association/your_rights_in_supported_housing
[9] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rough-sleeping-snapshot-in-england-autumn-2023/rough-sleeping-snapshot-in-england-autumn-2023
[10] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37643214/
[11] https://www.greaterchange.co.uk/post/unconditional-cash-transfers-homelessness-uk#:~:text=Contrary%20to%20stereotypes%2C%20the%20recipients,faster%20transitions%20into%20stable%20housing.
