An Essay on Recent Trends and Underlying Causes of Homelessness

This essay provides an overview of homelessness, examining its various types, including single, statutory, and hidden homelessness. It analyzes recent trends, such as the growth of homelessness since the 1970s and the impact of high rents and social housing shortages. The essay identifies underlying causes, including bad housing policies, the decline of social housing, welfare reforms, and low income. It also explores the connections between poverty, domestic violence, and homelessness. The analysis covers the UK context, highlighting the challenges faced by different groups, including young people, migrants, and families, and the increasing demand for temporary accommodation. The essay also provides statistics, demonstrating the severity of the issue and its impact on the affected populations.

Outline Recent Trends In
And The Underlying
Causes Of Homelessness.

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Essay:-..............................................................................................................................................1
Paragraph 1......................................................................................................................................1
Homelessness and its types.........................................................................................................1
Paragraph 2......................................................................................................................................3
Recent trends...............................................................................................................................3
Paragraph 3......................................................................................................................................5
Underlying Causes......................................................................................................................5
Paragraph 4......................................................................................................................................7
Personal Causes of Homelessness...............................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Homelessness is considered to be intractable problem which has been seen nowadays in
the society. The issues which has given rise to Homelessness is domestic violence, mental
illness, exposure to communicable diseases, etc.
The report will include the explanation about Homelessness and its types. Study will
emphasize on issues or challenges faced by the people. Project will highlight recent trends and
few causes of increase in their number. It will have focus on identifying the measures taken by
government in order to support these people. Assignment will include the detail about some
measures which can be utilized in order to reduce the number of Homelessness and enable
support to people struggling for shelter.
Essay:-
Paragraph 1
Homelessness and its types
Homelessness can be defined as the situation when the people do not have permanent dwelling a
struggle for shelter. Permanent dwelling is a house or a flat. All those people who are homeless
are most often not able to acquire and maintain a regular, safe, secure and proper housing due to
financial problem (How to help homeless people during the heatwave, 2018). This term also
includes such type of people for whom the primary night time residence is in a homeless shelter
like engaged streets of locality. Almost 4,450 households were accepted by the local authorities
as homeless that are having a priority need for providing the shelter to the old age people in UK
(Shelter warns of leap in working homeless as families struggle, 2018). There are womemn in
the age group of 60; along with the men in the age group of 65 years.
Single Homelessness:- This homeless can be defined as state of having no permanent
dwelling. In present scenario, Youth homelessness seems to be a major problem (Housing crisis
threatens a million families with eviction, 2017). The reason for increase in number of Homeless
people is insufficient income, lack of affordable housing, unemployment, etc. In the year, 2005,
almost 100 million people worldwide were homeless and in addition to this, the people
experiencing homelessness can be anyone, like individuals; children; or those who are living in

the families (Hidden homeless: the students ashamed to admit they’ve nowhere to sleep, 2017).
In the year, 2015, almost 37% of people experiencing the homelessness were in the families with
children; 64% were experienced individuals and the rest of 6% were children. These are all those
persons who do not have a proper shelter and are currently without housing; some are about to
get homeless within a time frame of 14 days. Now, it’s all a probability. Reason being, some are
surviving in the situation of life threatening which could be due to domestic violence (Far From
Home Alone. 2017).
Statutory Homelessness is the case, where the government take strict actions in the
respect of giving protection to those people that have been left homeless by their children or have
become homeless because of domestic violence prevailing in their house. For example, In UK
the local authorities like: Department For Communities and the Local Government and Homes
And Communities Agency are responsible to provide shelter to all those people that are homeless
under Part VII of the Housing Act,1996 (The Homelessness Monitor: England, 2017). Further,
rough Sleepers is an initiative that was taken by the government of the United Kingdom and it
resulted in a campaign in London. This initiative was to protect sleepers who sleeps in open air
like, car parks, derelict boats, barns, etc. It was identified that many rough sleepers had severe
health related issues in UK. and suffering from the problems like Schizophrenia (Homeless
Monitor, 2018).
Hidden Homelessness, can be defined as situation where the people are having rights to
stay in a accommodation but, they are not having any right to stay over there permanently. Now,
as per the government, just last year only, 78,930 households were in a temporary
accommodation, up-to 64% of people were suffering from homelessness.
Paragraph 2
Recent trends

Source : How to help homeless people during the heatwave
Growth of homelessness
Since 1970's the United Kingdom has seen rapid increase in homelessness. The leading
factors are high rents, shortage of social housing, etc. In 2017 there were around 200,000 cases
of homelessness identified of which the overall country has seen a dominant market and valued
jobs in its capital London and other big cities. People tend to move away from home in order to
find work and enjoy the services of big cities. It has made difficult for new people to find
shelters. This is one of the major causes of homelessness. Another reason is that people have
seen easy availability of resources such as transportation, government services, etc. This has led
a number of people to move away from their homes to the places where they can find these
value-added services, which in turn has increased homelessness in the country. Another factor is
the shortage seen in social housing which has made a variety of people to look for options which
are expensive.
Illustration 1: Number of Rough Sleepers

Poverty:- Relation of poverty with the homelessness is inextricably linked with each other.
Those are not having the capacity to fulfil their necessity like housing; food ;shelter and
education are categorised as impoverished.
Domestic Violence:- There is a complete connection between domestic violence with that of
homelessness. Due to family violence almost a total of 237 victims have affected per 100000
people.
Types of homelessness
In temporary accommodation – In 2017 as per done research 78,930 households were
said to be in temporary accommodation. In 2016, it was around 65,000 and 2010 it was 25000. It
can be seen the country has seen rapid growth in temporary accommodation in last decade.
Along with it, single homelessnesses can be seen growing rapidly as well. In 2015, there
were across 400,454 cases identified of single homelessness. In 2017 it increased to 565,756 and
in first quarter of 2018 there were around 767,656 single homelessnesses across United Kingdom
(Housing crisis threatens a million families with eviction, 2017).
As per Hidden homelessness observation it can be said that there is rapid increase in
hidden homelessness as well. Since 2010 to 2018 hidden homelessness has seen an increase of
25%. However, Statuary homelessness can be seen increasing rapidly because of the rising
demands of shelter in big cities which is making a number of people and communities to suffer.
In the last decade, there were around 200,534 registered cases of hidden homelessness in
United Kingdom itself. Countries such as America has seen half of the cases of hidden
homelessness that UK. In France, the statistics were 28% of overall homelessness in comparison
to UK, in Mexico it is 63%, and in Spain it is only 20% (Homeless Monitor, 2018).
The country has suffered statuary homelessness on a larger scale as well. Since last 5
years around 900,000 people were seen to be living in temporary accommodation houses. From
2015 to 2018 there was a 48% increase in demand these hostels and these accommodation
houses (How to help homeless people during the heatwave, 2018). Families tend to stay in these
places for around 7-8 days whereas individuals are seen to stay for more than 15 days. It has
become difficult for the United Kingdom to deal with statuary homelessness because of the
rising demands in these houses and fewer spaces in cities.

Cities such as London, Manchester and Glasgow have observed the highest rates of
Statuary and hidden homelessness. Young people between the ages 21-27 are suffering from
this homelessness, whereas older people with families are very few in cases of statuary and
hidden homelessness. Migrants are suffering major in these cases. People from around the world
coming to United Kingdom in order to travel, earn and live are facing statuary homelessness
because of lack of hospitality service providers and expensive accommodations (Housing crisis
threatens a million families with eviction, 2017).
Paragraph 3
Underlying Causes
The major underlying causes of homelessness include bad housing policies brought into
action by the government of United Kingdom. These policies are the ones that were put into
consideration for war veterans and public officials on a larger scale. These people were being
supplied with affordable and required houses. Later, these policies remained and the people of
the country started suffering from lack of housing available for them. People which were not war
veterans or big public officials found it very difficult to earn houses provided by the government.
In 2018 there were around 20,000 cases were registered underlying people suffering from these
housing lack of better housing policies provided by the government of United Kingdom (The
Homelessness Monitor: England, 2017).
Other reasons include people of the country shifting from social housing and not building
affordable houses on their own. This creates trouble when there are enough government
services providing housing for the people and they tend to use the services of it, again, they do
not build the houses on their own. This leads to these people suffering from homelessness on a
larger scale and the government to consider other options to deal with this homelessness
(Homeless Monitor, 2018).
It can be seen as in United Kingdom there is not any regulation control on the levels of
rent. This has made difficult for people to choose a place that provides them with the optimum
or desired rent in which they can afford the housing which they desire to live into. Also, there are
situations where people are face hurdles in finding rent houses that are fit for them because of

increased expenses and lack of mobility. To improve the situation, the government of United
Kingdom has decided to provide these people with better services and required housing facilities.
Along with it, there is a decline that has been seen in social rented housing which has
made it difficult for people to look for options which are affordable and are convenient at the
same time (Housing crisis threatens a million families with eviction, 2017). Social rented
housing used to be the first preference for the people of United Kingdom. After arrival or better
private rented facilities people which can afford them are finding it easy to shift while the ones
cannot are suffering from the issues of homelessness or not having their own houses.
Since 2008, the country has seen a growth in welfare reforms which has made a variety
of people such as senior citizens, military personnels, government officials to fully dependant
on their own. These reforms have made these people to stop enjoying the services provided by
the government in order to live as per their needs and requirements. These welfare reforms tend
to take away the right of these people to where they no longer have any source providing them
with necessary living facilities. Around 75,455 people have seen to face homelessness because of
the welfare reforms done by the government of United Kingdom. After Brexit the government of
United Kingdom has ensured its people to scrap these welfare reforms and provide necessary
living facilities to its people as well (How to help homeless people during the heatwave, 2018).
Low income is another factor that has been observed as a major cause of homelessness
for the people of United Kingdom. There is an increased amount of homeless people in United
Kingdom which are homeless because of not having enough money to buy a home and live on
rents as well. Low incomes has turned a lot of people towards streets of the country without
having a shelter of their own. These people are provided with social housing facilities by the
government in the recent past. Also, the government is choosing to provide shelters and food
facilities to these people for free until they are able to earn their own (Shelter warns of leap in
working homeless as families struggle, 2018).

Paragraph 4
Personal Causes of Homelessness
There are a number of causes that can be seen as major causing or impacting
homelessness between a number of people or communities in United Kingdom. Relationship
breakdowns can be seen as one issue that makes people to leave their homes. Couples tend to get
divorced or do not feel satisfied with their living partners are the reasons leading towards these
relationship breakdowns (Far From Home Alone, 2017). These breakdowns make people leave
their homes and the one who cannot afford to buy other homes or a place to live becomes
homeless. Since 2017, there were around 7000 cases registered in the capital city of London in
which these people suffered relationship breakdowns and later homelessness as well.
Domestic violence is another cause of homelessness that has been observed by The Big
Issues foundation. The rising cases of domestic violence within families and couples has led
people to leave their houses and settle for other accommodation services. If people are not able
to afford these houses they become homeless as there is no other option left. This has created a
rising demand for houses across different communities in cities such as London and Manchester.
Governments have decided to deal with the issue of domestic violence by making violence
practices and punishments more strict. This somehow has helped the country to ease the tension
in a rising increase of these domestic violence cases and related homelessness as well.
Other personal issues include mental health issues of a number of people. People
suffering from diseases such as dementia, Alzheimer are left by families alone with their
diseases. In such cases, this it is seen as a difficult task for government to find the right medical
and housing services for these people. Government tends to look out for these people for a long
term by helping them in providing services of shelter, food and clothing but if these people are
not identified well then they have to face homelessness and in the worst cases they are left alone
entirely.
The above personal causes explore how homelessness have impacted United Kingdom in
last decade. This has made the country to suffer as well as its people and government. It is
important that government takes necessary measures to deal with these issues of homelessness.
However, if there was enough affordable housing available for the people of the country there

would be very minimal issues of homelessness were tracked within these people (Homeless
Monitor, 2018). Cities such as London, Glasgow, and Manchester are the ones that suffer major
from homelessness and homeless people.
CONCLUSION
The report explores the recent trends and the underlying causes of homelessness in
United Kingdom. It showcases how homelessness have recently impacted the major cities of the
country and the country itself. Homelessness have made a lot of people to suffer from situations
where they do not have a necessary shelter to live in. It describes in detail about the types of
homelessness such as single homelessness, statuary homelessness, the rough sleepers and hidden
homelessness. The complexity of the situation has been identified as well. The factors leading to
the growth of homelessness and what is making the people of the country to suffer from it. Also,
the report puts light on the efforts made by the government to tackle these issues. The strategies
that the government of United Kingdom have adopted to improve the current situations
underlying homelessness. The types of homelessness have also been identified from which it can
be seen as which types are major impacted ones. The core government issues such as loose
housing policies, lack of social housing, and deregulation of the private rented sector have also
been identified in the report. The report helps to understand the major issues which are causing
homelessness in the country and how it can be rectified as well.

REFERENCES
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homeless-as-families-struggle>.
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Homeless Monitor. 2018. [Online]. Available Through: <https://www.crisis.org.uk/ending-
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