UK’s housing crisis laid bare as record number of homeless people – including 11 children – died last year

A record 1,611 homeless people have died in 2024, including 11 children, according to new figures revealing the shocking impact of the UK’s housing crisis.

The Museum of Homelessness’s research found that four of the children were infants under the age of one, and homelessness deaths stood at 1,474 in 2023 and 1,313 in 2022, up 9 percent from the previous year.

Homelessness has been on the rise in recent years; There were 178,560 households assessed as homeless by councils in 2023-24, an increase of 12.3 per cent on the previous year.

More than half of the deaths recorded last year were classified as “deaths of despair”; This means the person died by suicide or the deaths were drug or alcohol related.

In one case, a man died just weeks after being released from an NHS mental health center without a community treatment order requiring him to be supervised by doctors. Barnaby Spicer, who had a history of psychosis, died in November 2024 after being released from the Redwoods Center in Shrewsbury.

His family said they wrote to the mental health charity about Spicer’s concerns for his safety before his death. The NHS trust, which runs the centre, has reportedly launched an internal investigation into Mr Spicer’s care.

In another case, an unnamed man was found dead in a tent set up outside an Asda supermarket in Leicester in early December and police did not treat the death as suspicious.

In August last year, a 46-year-old man named Alexander Colman was found dead in the tent he had set up as a home for himself. It was found by a walker at Fletchers Hill Closed Area in Rhinefield.

In another horrific case, a homeless man reportedly starved to death in July 2024 after getting his arm pinned while trying to enter a house through a skylight.

According to the local newspaper, Algerian asylum seeker Khaled Aribi, from Camden, London, was discovered by an estate agent when he arrived to view the property. Ham and High. The newspaper reported that at the time of his death he was on a waiting list for counseling and was considered a very vulnerable adult. His death was ruled an accident by the coroner.

Over the last three years, the proportion of deaths in temporary or supported accommodation, including hotels, has increased. The researchers found that the increase, which included deaths in B&Bs and B&Bs, outpaced the increase in the number of households living in such accommodation.

Last year’s data included 11 children; Four of these were babies who had not yet reached their first birthday. The other four were aged between 1 and 9, two children were aged between 15 and 17, and the age of the other was unknown.

The figures are likely lower than the true extent of the problem, but increase from four figures in 2023 to 2024, researchers said. The Dying Homeless Project began recording deaths in 2017 due to a lack of data from the Office for National Statistics.

The latest government figures published in July showed that the number of households in temporary accommodation in England reached a new record of 131,140 at the end of March 2025.

The number of children provided with temporary accommodation increased from 151,540 to 169,050 in March compared to the previous year. This is the highest figure since records began in 1998.

In January, a report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Households Providing Temporary Accommodation (APPG) said 74 children, mostly infants, had died in England in recent years, with temporary accommodation noted as a possible contributing factor.

Rick Henderson, chief executive of Homeless Link, described the increase in the number of people dying while homeless as “tragic and unacceptable”, saying it was “a clear signal of the homelessness crisis we face”.

He added: “Not only are more people losing their homes, but increasing numbers of people are already facing unmet health and social care needs, and this is exacerbated when they become homeless.”

Project director Matthew Turtle called for “urgent action” from the government and said the data “shows how” homeless people continue to fail profoundly.”

Francesca Albanese, of the crisis charity, said more social housing was needed to ensure people had access to “affordable, established homes” and called on the government to lift the housing benefit freeze to stop people falling into poverty. He added: “We are talking about real people, including children, not just numbers here. These are potential lives cut short and unrealised. In most cases these deaths will be preventable.”

Minister for Homelessness Alison McGovern described the figures as “heartbreaking”, adding: “We simply cannot accept this as normal. Every person deserves a safe place to call home, which is why we are stepping up efforts to tackle the root causes of homelessness, expanding access to safe housing while also strengthening support services.”