Homelessness Up over a Quarter in England as Govt Puts Up Thousands of Migrants in Hotels

Man sits on the pavement under a sleeping bag beside a money exchange currency shop while
Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

The number of homeless people sleeping on the streets of England has risen by over a quarter over the previous year at the same time as that the government is spending billions on housing illegal migrants in hotels across the country.

According to figures released from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities which recorded a snapshot from a single night in the autumn of last year, there were 3,069 people “sleeping rough” on the streets last year, compared to 2,443 in 2021, representing a 25.6 per cent increase.

London, run by far-left Mayor Sadiq Khan, saw the sharpest surge of homeless people on the year, increasing by 34 per cent from 640 in 2021 to 858 last year.

When broken down by nationality, though specific countries besides the UK were not listed, the figures showed that the overwhelming number of homeless people recorded were British-born, totalling some 1,966 people or 64 per cent. Meanwhile, 632 hailed from EU nations, 179 came from neither the UK nor the EU, and the nationality of 292 was listed as “not known”.

The problem of homelessness continues to be a heavily male problem, with nearly 83 per cent, or 2,539 homeless people who were recorded being men last year. In contrast, the snapshot listed 464 women as being homeless and 66 people not identified as either gender.

Commenting on the figures, a policy adviser at the Salvation Army, Andrew Connell told The Times of London: “We can see the cost of living crisis affecting people.

“It’s driving people into homelessness, partly because of inability to find accommodation they can afford, partly because of the effects it’s having on people’s ability to maintain their existing accommodation. It is also affecting services like ours, because our costs are going up too.”

The chief executive of the charity Homeless Link, Rick Henderson described the increase as a “massive collective failure,” adding: “The cost of living crisis has exacerbated longstanding drivers of homelessness, such as a shortage of affordable housing, an often punitive welfare system and increasingly stretched health services.”

While the Conservative government published a strategy to fulfil its manifesto commitment to end homelessness in September, dubbed “Ending rough sleeping for good”, the issue has compounded in part due to the government-provided housing benefits to the poor not keeping up with inflation, putting many more people at risk of being put out on the streets.

A government spokesman said: “Over half a million households have been prevented from becoming homeless or supported into settled accommodation since 2018 and rough sleeping remains well below pre-pandemic levels. But we know there is more to do to help families at risk of losing their homes and to end rough sleeping for good.”

Though thousands of British citizens are currently sleeping on the streets, the government has seen fit to spend billions in taxpayer money on housing thousands of illegal migrants while they apply for asylum. There are currently over 40,000 migrants being put up in hotels across the country, with estimates putting the cost of the scheme at as much as £7 million per day.

In total, the asylum system, which has been overwhelmed by record numbers of illegals pouring over the English Channel, has already topped £2 billion per year.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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