UK deaths of 1,611 homeless people in 2024 is record high

The number of people dying while homeless in England reached a record high last year, new figures show.

The Museum of Homelessness, which compiled the data, said 1,611 homeless people will die in 2024.

The figure is 9% higher than the previous year, with the majority of deaths linked to suicide or drugs, with spices and nitazines becoming increasingly deadly.

Museum director Matthew Turtle said the deaths “show how profoundly homeless people continue to fail.”

Homelessness Minister Alison McGovern described the figures as “heartbreaking” and said the government was “stepping up efforts to tackle the root causes of homelessness”.

The data has been collated using information from Coroners’ courts, media coverage, family testimony and freedom of information requests. The government no longer publishes official data on the number of deaths of homeless people.

Among the dead was Anthony Marks, 51, who was attacked near London’s King’s Cross station in August 2024.

Two weeks after being released from the hospital, he was readmitted following a seizure and died. Four people were charged for his death.

Tim Renshaw, chief executive of the Archer Project, a homeless charity in Sheffield, said: “We shouldn’t be surprised that people are dying on our streets.” he said.

“We have one of the worst systems in terms of making housing available to the poorest. We’re looking at homelessness being associated with health factors – trauma, depression, anxiety. And there are increasing levels of poverty.”

In November 2024, three homeless women died within 10 days in Sheffield.

One of them, a woman in her 40s, was buried without a single person attending the funeral service.

Renshaw had been known to homeless services in Sheffield for a number of years, but the name by which they knew him was not his registered name.

When his funeral was held under his official name, no one recognized him.

“This was an absolute tragedy,” he said. “We had people approach us saying they liked attending the funeral.”

Three of the 1,611 homeless deaths in 2024 were men. Two-thirds of the deaths were from people living in temporary or supported accommodation, 169 of whom were sleeping rough. There were eleven children, but the ministry said the actual figure would be higher.

Figures show 1,142 deaths were in England, up 16% on the previous year.

London had the highest total number of deaths, but the biggest increases were in Nottingham, where the number of deaths more than doubled from eight to 21, and in Exeter, from eight to 21.

In Northern Ireland, deaths rose by more than a third between 2023 and 2024, to 211. Wales saw a small annual decline from 97 to 90.

In Scotland there was an 18% reduction overall from 206 to 168. The Museum of Homelessness found that deaths in both Glasgow and Edinburgh had fallen by around 40%.

The figures are compiled by the museum’s dying homeless project. It says its methodology does not include any predictions and is the only organization to collate figures since the Office for National Statistics stops doing so in 2022.

The number of people living in temporary accommodation across England is at record levels, with the number of people sleeping rough in England rising to 20% by 2024, according to official statistics.

Experts who work with homeless people say they have yet to see any real policy differences since Labor took office.

They welcome Labour’s commitment to build 180,000 homes for social rent over the next decade, but say consistent multi-year funding to tackle the issue has so far been lacking.

“[Former housing secretary] Angela Rayner and [former homelessness minister] “There is a lack of leadership on homelessness and housing at all levels of government in the face of the worst homelessness crisis this country has ever seen,” Rushanara Ali said.

Homelessness Minister Alison McGovern said the government was “expanding access to safe accommodation while also strengthening support services.

“The loss of a life, especially the death of a child, is a failure of life that cannot be tolerated.”

Any action will be too late for Debby Wakeham. His son, Richard Sanders, died in a homeless hostel in South London earlier this year.

Mr. Sanders, 56, suffered from addiction and mental health problems for years.

After struggling to contact him in May, Ms Wakeham, 76, said she called his hostel repeatedly over two days. Eventually, a manager talked him into saying, “You shouldn’t have had to hear it this way, but he passed away last Wednesday.” “He had been dead for nine days by then,” he recalls.

The hostel said they did not have relatives details, although she had left her number with them following a previous visit.

A postmortem had been performed on Mr Sanders before his mother knew he was dead and his clothes were thrown away before she took them back.

There is still no clear cause of death. “I’m alive,” he said, “even now I wouldn’t know [he’d died] If I hadn’t kept playing. “

Mr Turtle said the museum’s investigation showed “how homeless people continue to be profoundly failed”.

“We call for urgent action from the government to alleviate this crisis.”