People in employment are increasingly being provided access to homelessness services, according to Homeless Link's latest annual report.
The Support to End Homelessness 2025: review of services addressing single homelessness in England report tracked the sector’s shape, size and challenges, and the circumstances of people accessing homelessness support.
The report reveals a stark picture of rising homelessness, with rough sleeping estimates and the number of households in temporary accommodation reaching record levels. An estimated 4,793 people were sleeping rough on a given night in 2025, representing a 171% increase since 2010. On 31 December 2025, 134,210 households were in temporary accommodation, a 5% annual increase.
Worryingly, the services reported that they were increasingly providing support to people facing in-work homelessness. This indicates that inflated living costs and financial pressures, including low paid insecure work, continue to be key drivers of homelessness in 2025 and highlights the urgent need for further prevention.
Both day centres and accommodation providers also reported seeing substantial increases amongst refugees accessing their services (72% and 45% respectively). The announcement of the 42 day move-on period from asylum accommodation alongside the other Government proposals for reform to the asylum and immigration systems will mean that exiting asylum accommodation continues to be a substantial driver of rough sleeping and homelessness, particularly in the absence of wider improvements to the support available during the move-on period.
The impact of the lack of affordable housing is evident throughout the 2025 Review. 28% of people being accommodated on a given night were waiting to move on, of which over half (55%) had been waiting for six months or longer. Systemic barriers such as the lack of available social housing and PRS accommodation at LHA rate are causing significant blockages in the system.
For the past eighteen years, Homeless Link’s national study on support provided by the homelessness sector in England has provided crucial evidence to inform policy and practice.
The research aims to help service providers, commissioners, policy makers, and local authorities understand and respond to the needs of people experiencing homelessness.
