New figures released today show that between October and December 2025, record numbers of people were forced to sleep rough in London.
The statistics from the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) also show that:
Overall, 4,841 people were forced to sleep rough in this period – a record high.
The number of people living on the streets is now 830 – the highest number on record and an 18% rise on the same period a year before.
The number of people sleeping rough for the first time in London between October and December (2,250) has risen 6% compared to the same period last year.
With housing benefit frozen and failing to keep up with rising rents, and with not enough social homes being built, more and more people are being forced into homelessness – including sleeping on the streets. Rough sleeping is the most visible and dangerous forms of homelessness, with the charity’s own research showing that nine in ten people sleeping rough in England have experienced violence or abuse.
While the Westminster Government’s National Plan to End Homelessness included a number of measures aimed at reducing rough sleeping, the strategy failed to fully address the factors pushing people into homelessness in the first place – including the affordability crisis in the private rented sector and the chronic shortage of social homes. Without the delivery of social and genuinely affordable homes, rough sleeping in the capital – and across the country – will continue to rise.
Matt Downie, Chief Executive at Crisis, said: “The fact that rough sleeping in London is once again at record highs is simply shameful. This is now a normalised emergency – years of rising homelessness has desensitised us to the stark reality that thousands of people have nowhere safe to stay and have to sleep on the streets.
“This is a reality that no one should have to experience – moving between night buses and 24-hour cafes, staying awake in doorways and being exposed to unimaginable violence and cruelty.
“Over the years, a failure to invest in support services and to build new social homes at anywhere close to the scale required has gotten us to this point. Although the Westminster Government has pledged to halve the number of people sleeping rough long-term, with record numbers of people living on the streets it’s crucial that they address the reasons driving people there in the first place – chiefly the lack of genuinely affordable homes. Support services also need to be expanded so that no one is left facing life on the streets.”
