Evaluation of Homelessness in Great Britain

This data investigation project focuses on homelessness in Great Britain, identifying the root causes and impact. It explores who and where people experience homelessness, based on raw facts and census data.

Mathematics and Statistics for
Social Scientists

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Evaluation on who and where people experience homelessness including its impact................1
Factors that cause homelessness..................................................................................................2
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Today, homelessness is considered as one of the major problems that billions of people at
world level, are facing, who belong to vulnerable communities. Due to this issue, they are
suffering from many problems like hunger, mental and physical illness, family breakdown,
addictions etc., that highly impact of quality of life of them (Anderson, 2019). This Data
investigation project is based on homeless on Great Britain, to identify the root cause behind it.
For this purpose, main focus is given on Britain countries by breakdown process into some
common cities of Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and more. To conduct this study,
demonstration is given on who and where do people of these countries experience homelessness,
by exploring some latest raw facts, data and figures based on census report.
MAIN BODY
Evaluation on who and where people experience homelessness including its impact
Homelessness is considered as the most devastating issue, regardless of age, where its
implications mostly impact on children, in terms of emotional, psychological and physical
damage. In context with Britain, it has been evaluated that England, Wales and Scotland are
likely to be totally underestimated the condition of homelessness (Oudshoorn, Van Berkum and
Van Loon, 2018). As per research conducted by Shelter (housing charity), more than 320k
people are facing this issue. This amount is increasing continuously by 4% i.e. near about 13,000
every year, regardless of pledges taken by government for dealing with this crisis (At least
320,000 homeless people in Britain, says Shelter, 2019). In this sense, rough sleepers, people
who have accommodations but on temporary basis, are experienced problems related to
homelessness. Because they live in cars, sheds and other insecure place, therefore, also known as
sofa-surfers. Newham of east London, comes on top rank of England and considered as hotspot
for homelessness. It has been identified that one in every twenty-four people are facing problem
related to housing insecurity (Tang, Dovey and Mapstone, 2019). Similarly, 76 people in
borough and 14,500 ones, comes in category of sleeping rough and temporary accommodation
simultaneously.
People who are experiencing homelessness problem, also include those that are sleeping on
street. They are almost seventeen times more likely ones, who been victims of sexual, physical
and mental violence. It has been evaluated that more than one among three people that sleeping
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rough on footpath, have been kicked or deliberately hit or kicked are experienced various forms
of violence due to homeless (Bretherton and Pleace, 2019). In addition to this, people because of
such issue are likely to take or end own life as compared to general population.
Factors that cause homelessness
People become homeless due to lots of different reasons, such as social causes like
financial issues or unaffordable housing, unemployment and poverty; life events like drug
addiction, separate from families which cause individuals to suffer from it (Fitzpatrick and et. al.,
2019). In addition to this, when individuals leave prison, home care or army officers with no
home to live also faces such issues. With regards to homeless women, suffering from domestic
violence, intense relationship and more, or single females who are no longer to afford the rent,
suffer homelessness. Some life events such losing a job, breakdown from relationship, emotional
or physical health problems, etc. are other conditions, where people experience homelessness
(Moran and Atherton, 2018). In such conditions, being homeless could make in turn, to arise
difficulties, even harder for resolve. Some factors that consider as main root cause behind
homelessness are explained as below –
Housing – Shortage of affordable housing as well as limited scale of its assistance
programs contributes to housing crisis and homelessness, in the entire world. Homelessness is a
housing problem, where people that are unable to pay for getting shelter, are customary housing,
lack acceptable and often sleep at streets (Nowicki, Brickell and Harris, 2019). However,
housing is not real problem as availability of house in Britain is enough for its population. But
reason behind homelessness is high rates of homes both in terms of tenancy and purchasing.
Poverty – Homelessness and poverty considered as inextricably linked with each other,
because poor people are mostly unable to pay for food, childcare, housing, health care and
education (Lowrie and et. al., 2019). Difficult choices must be made when limited resources
cover only some of these necessities. Often it is housing, which absorbs a high proportion of
income that must be dropped. Therefore, it has been evaluated that if people are poor, then are
essentially will get affected by chronic issues like high illness due to malnutrition, kick by
accident or experience of homeless, losing of job and more. Extreme poverty for such vulnerable
community are extremely expensive. It is therefore, far cheaper for prevent poor people from
issues of homeless (Harding, 2019). According to research for Crisis (2015), it has been
identified that cost of a single individual or sleeping rough in Britain for 12 months is about
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£20,128, where successful intervention costs for same includes £1,426. In this sense, to put this
in context, from census report, it was revealed earlier average private education place in this
country in 2015, was costs to £17,000 per year.
Domestic Violence – It is another main root cause of people to experience situation of
homelessness, where assaulted women that live in poverty are often forced to either choose
abusive relationships or homelessness ( (Anderson, 2019). Housing instability as well as a lack
of safe or affordable options highly heightens the risks to those women, who are experiencing
domestic violence. When females flee such abusiveness, they are forced for leaving their houses,
with nowhere else to turn. In addition to this, landlords also used to turn victims who are
suffering from domestic violence or broken from family, out of homes after seeing violence
against them. Advocates know that such violence is a root cause of homelessness especially for
women and children. Researches from across the country, has confirmed about strong connection
between these two major factors domestic violence and homelessness, including ways for end the
cause in which ferocity against females leads them to get life on the streets (Oudshoorn, Van
Berkum and Van Loon, 2018).
Mental Illness – People having poor mental health condition, are more susceptible for
facing homelessness, due to three main factors: poverty, personal vulnerability and disaffiliation.
The reason behind such situation is lack of capacity for sustaining employment and normal life,
where people with little income, domestic violence, life trauma and more, are likely to suffer
from mental disorders (Tang, Dovey and Mapstone, 2019). In such condition, delusional thinking
often lead them to withdraw from family, spouse and from surrounding communities. Therefore,
lack of support in turn increase mental illness with impairment in ability for being resilient and
resourceful. So, all such reasons, individuals with mental illness and lack of emotional support
are supposed to be at greater risk of experiencing homelessness.
Thus, it has been evaluated from above discussion that lack of affordable housing, lack of
income source or unemployment, poverty, mental illness as well as lack of needed services,
including domestic violence and more, all leads to increase situations for people, to get an
experience of homelessness. In England, more than 280,000 people are experiencing
homelessness in 2017, with thousands are more at risk for the same (280,000 people in England
are homeless, with thousands more at risk, 2019). New figures from Shelter has revealed
recorded data of homeless in England, there is an increase of 23,000 as compared with previous
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year. This officially extensive analysis of Shelter is mostly based on rough sleeping as well as
temporary accommodation figures, include social services records. So, it illustrates that in among
every 200 people, one is at homelessness (Bretherton and Pleace, 2019). This census review has
also demonstrated critical condition of large people i.e. thousands of people in England are
threatened with situation of homelessness. Instead of being most comprehensive overview of
situation in this country, it is also widely known for lot of hidden undocumented of homeless
people, that includes sofa-surfers, rough sleepers and more (Shelter Scotland. Local area
statistics, 2020). It shows level of homelessness in true manner, likely to be increased and more
tensed. It shows warning that if no action will be taken on time, for addressing the dire lack of
homeless people then this situation is more likely to get worse. Alongside its bid, it is essential
for building affordable and social housing where charity is calling on giving support to
vulnerable society, to overcome from those conditions and factors that lead them towards facing
of homelessness (Fitzpatrick and et. al., 2019).
Table 1: Estimated number of people who are homeless as in 2018-19, by type of
homelessness, England
Areas Number of people who
are homeless as in 2018-
19
Aberdeen City 1629
Aberdeenshire 1152
Angus 694
Argyll & Bute 460
Clackmannanshire 553
Dumfries & Galloway 910
Dundee City 1466
East Ayrshire 805
East Dunbartonshire 421
East Lothian 790
East Renfrewshire 308
Edinburgh City 3229
Eilean Siar 144
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Falkirk 1017
Fife 2628
Glasgow City 5679
Highland 1171
Inverclyde 200
Midlothian 492
Moray 561
North Ayrshire 1031
North Lanarkshire 2366
Orkney 133
Perth & Kinross 942
Renfrewshire 848
Scottish Borders 735
Shetland 117
South Ayrshire 871
South Lanarkshire 1926
Stirling 634
West Dunbartonshire 1037
West Lothian 1516
Table 2: Estimated number of people who are homeless as at a given night in 2019, by type of
homelessness, by region of England
Regions of
England
Homeless
in TA arr.
by the
council [1]
Homeless in
TA arr. by
them or
homeless at
home [2]
Rough
sleeping
[3]
Total
people
homeless
[7]
Rate of ppl
who are
homeless
(1 in x ppl)
[8]
Change
since Q2
2016
North East 700 295 66 1,061 2,504 4%
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North
West
8,380 230 428 9,038 807 117%
Yorkshire
and The
Humber
1,940 468 246 2,654 2,065 16%
East
Midlands
4,310 150 358 4,818 997 50%
West
Midlands
13,100 10,195 420 23,715 249 64%
East of
England
16,000 212 484 16,696 371 18%
London 163,100 5,685 1283 170,068 52 4%
South East 22,850 411 934 24,195 378 27%
South
West
6,260 409 458 7,127 786 0%
Table 3:
Area Total Outcomes
Households
threatened
with
Homelessness
within in 56
days -Number
(Section 66)
Households
threatened
with
Homelessness
within in 56
days-Rate per
10,000
households
Households
successfully
prevented
from
Homelessness
– Number
(Section 66)
Households
successfully
prevented
from
Homelessness
– Percentage
(%) (section
66)
Households
successfully
prevented
from
Homelessness
– Rate per
10,000
households
Total
Outcomes
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(Section 66) (Section 66)
Wales 10,737 80 7,290 68 54 31,170
Isle of Anglesey 204 66 114 55 36 675
Gwynedd 150 28 108 71 20 579
Conwy 312 60 219 70 42 1,080
Denbighshire 327 79 189 58 46 1,173
Flintshire 381 58 240 63 36 1,344
Wrexham 144 25 75 51 13 945
Powys 222 37 159 71 27 627
Ceredigion 165 53 96 58 31 453
Pembrokeshire 450 81 339 75 61 1,005
Carmarthenshire 435 54 258 59 32 2,070
Swansea 1,173 108 885 75 82 2,595
Neath Port
Talbot 654 106 348 53 56 2,181
Bridgend 378 61 267 71 43 1,419
Vale of
Glamorgan 342 60 282 82 50 756
Cardiff 2,235 147 1,707 76 112 5,631
Rhondda Cynon
Taf 753 72 531 71 51 1,491
Merthyr Tydfil 174 71 99 57 40 624
Caerphilly 624 82 471 75 62 2,085
Blaenau Gwent 372 120 222 59 71 579
Torfaen 435 110 237 55 60 1,242
Monmouthshire 306 77 207 67 52 603
Newport 498 77 243 49 38 2,010
From the above mentioned figures, it has been evaluated that London reports as highest level
of people facing homelessness (Moran and Atherton, 2018). Rough sleepers in this country, are
just the visible as tip of iceberg in terms of registering as well as understanding situation of
homelessness crisis. Hereby, widening net of poverty including provision of breakdown of
emotional and mental health, shows that numbers of individuals experiencing homelessness are
continuously growing. Near about 4,000 to 5,000 of major portion of vulnerable society, are bed
down on streets on every night (At least 320,000 homeless people in Britain, says Shelter, 2019).
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Till 2019, more than 84,740 households are seemed to be stuck in sofa-surfing or temporary
accommodation, which is just 75% more than data of 2010. Shockingly, it has been estimated by
Shelter, that over 135k children are living in temporary accommodation by 2019, where
according to census report, 726 people have been died in 2018 while homeless in Wales and
England. This was up to 22% more as compared with previous year, including people of average
age was 45 years old men, 43 years old homeless women (Nowicki, Brickell and Harris, 2019).
In context with Statistics of Wales, it has been evaluated that for this country as a whole,
over 86.8 per 10k households in 2018-19 survey, were assessed as homeless, where, as compared
with previous years, it was at the rate of 84.0 in 2017-18 and 81.9 in 2016-17. Furthermore, it
has been reported by Cardiff that the highest no. of households who are assessed as homeless are
at 2174, under Section 73 of the new legislation (Lowrie and et. al., 2019). While, with respect to
Scotland area, in 2019, homeless applications were near about 36,465 and 29,894 households has
been assessed as experiencing this situation by their local authority (Why many people are
homeless in Scotland, 2019). This situation indicates that households have been losing their
home in Scotland every 17.5 minutes due to root causes of homelessness. There is an increase of
3% of number of homeless applications made in previous year, due to renewed preventative
approach that is adopted by local authorities in terms of of housing options.
Similarly, considering the situation of Netherlands, through statistical survey as shown in
above tables, it has been identified that households who are presenting as homeless to Ireland
Housing Executive of this country, includes 33% are single men having no children. It illustrates
that highest presenters of people that are facing such problem includes males of 26 to 59 age
with a total of 4,350 cases (Harding, 2019). Therefore, it indicates that being a single homeless
male shows that sources of likelihood in terms of receiving the support of housing for them is
extremely low.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from all over report that number of people who are experiencing the
situation of homelessness, are continuously growing. This group includes individuals, facing life
trauma, poverty, domestic violence, mental illness and more, where they are more likely at risk
of homeless. In context with UK, due to highly ignorance of temporary accommodation and
sofa-surfing homeless people, this situation has been highly raised from past years. Therefore,
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government needs to take serious and immediate actions for resolving this situation, otherwise it
could be more worst in upcoming years, which directly affect economic condition.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Harding, J., 2019. Post-war Homelessness Policy in the UK: Making and Implementation.
Springer.
Lowrie, F. and et. al., 2019. A descriptive study of a novel pharmacist led health outreach service
for those experiencing homelessness. International Journal of Pharmacy
Practice. 27(4). pp.355-361.
Nowicki, M., Brickell, K. and Harris, E., 2019. The hotelisation of the housing crisis:
Experiences of family homelessness in Dublin hotels. The Geographical
Journal. 185(3). pp.313-324.
Moran, P. and Atherton, F., 2018. The Philosophy of Homelessness: Barely Being. Routledge.
Fitzpatrick, S. and et. al., 2019. The homelessness monitor: England 2019.
Bretherton, J. and Pleace, N., 2019. Is Work an Answer to Homelessness?: Evaluating an
Employment Programme for Homeless Adults. European Journal of Homelessness,
pp.59-83.
Tang, S., Dovey, G. and Mapstone, J., 2019. Homelessness: implications for paramedic
practice. Journal of Paramedic Practice. 11(2). pp.52-53.
Oudshoorn, A., Van Berkum, A. and Van Loon, C., 2018. A history of women’s homelessness:
the making of a crisis. Journal of Social Inclusion. 9(1). pp.5-20.
Anderson, I., 2019. Delivering the Right to Housing? Why Scotland Still Needs an ‘Ending
Homelessness’ Action Plan. European Journal of Homelessness _ Volume. 13(2).
Online
At least 320,000 homeless people in Britain, says Shelter. 2019. [Online] Available Through:<
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/22/at-least-320000-homeless-people-
in-britain-says-shelter#:~:text=At%20least%20320%2C000%20people%20are,in
%20200%20people%20are%20homeless. >.
Shelter Scotland. Local area statistics. 2020. [Online] Available Through:<
https://scotland.shelter.org.uk/housing_policy/key_statistics/local_authority_statistics>.
280,000 people in England are homeless, with thousands more at risk. 2019. [Online] Available
Through:<
https://england.shelter.org.uk/media/press_releases/articles/280,000_people_in_england
_are_homeless,_with_thousands_more_at_risk>.
Why many people are homeless in Scotland. 2019.
<https://scotland.shelter.org.uk/housing_policy/key_statistics/homelessness_facts_and_
research>.
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