Four people died while homeless every day in the UK last year: 'People continue to be failed'

Campaigners have called for Labour to get a grip of the homelessness crisis after more than 1,600 homeless deaths were counted in 2024.

Museum of Homelessness (MoH) has been running the Dying Homeless Project since 2019 and revealed a 9% rise in the number of people dying on the street, in emergency accommodation or other insecure settings last year. That amounted to the equivalent of four lives lost every day and included 11 children.

MoH director Matthew Turtle urged political leaders to take action with record numbers of people experiencing homelessness translating into a growing number of deaths. Homelessness minister Alison McGovern described the statistics as “heartbreaking”.

“Angela Rayner and Rushanara Ali leaving their posts in 2025 lays bare the lack of leadership on homelessness and housing at all levels of government in the face of the worst homelessness crisis this country has ever seen,” said Turtle.

“Our investigation shows how homeless people continue to be deeply failed. We are calling for urgent action from the government to alleviate this crisis.”

The 1,611 deaths counted in 2024 is a rise of 127 on the 1,474 deaths counted in 2023.

The annual count found more than half the deaths were classed as a “death of despair”, meaning more deaths by suicide being reported to the project and evidence of a higher rate of drug-related deaths.

MoH said the figures show rising issues with psychoactive substances, such as spice and synthetic opioids. Drugs and alcohol featured in 44% of deaths. Big Issue has extensively reported on the impact of nitazenes causing street deaths.

The grassroots count also revealed a growing number of deaths in temporary accommodation, such as hotels and supported accommodation.

But there was a mixed picture across the UK. England saw a surge in deaths, particularly in the South West, East of England and East Midlands, while both Scotland and Wales saw the number of people losing their lives fall.

England saw a 15% increase in deaths overall. A total of 1,142 deaths were counted in 2024, far in excess of the 983 counted a year earlier. London saw numbers increase from 310 to 326 people losing their lives while homeless.

Both Glasgow and Edinburgh have seen significant reductions in deaths since 2023. A total of 31 and 23 deaths were reported in 2024 in the two cities respectively, down from 51 in Glasgow and 41 in Edinburgh the previous year. Overall, 168 people died in Scotland, down from 206 in 2023.

Wales also saw a fall in deaths – from 97 in 2023 to 90 a year later – with Cardiff recording 23 deaths, down from 35 in 2023.

But there was a surge in homeless deaths across Northern Ireland, up to 211 in 2024 after seeing numbers fall from 205 to 155 between 2022 and 2023.

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Gill Taylor, MoH’s strategic lead on the Dying Homeless Project, said: “While it is positive that local authorities and Safeguarding Adult Boards appear to be taking the issue more seriously, with better reporting and evidence of improved local partnership working to prevent deaths, turning the tide on this enormous loss of life needs more than better counting.

“We remember with love all those who died and continue our work in solidarity with bereaved loved ones and the homeless community.”

Reacting to the 2024 count, Big Issue founder Lord John Bird said: “What is encouraging, if there was a such thing in such tragic circumstances, is that Wales and Scotland saw a fall in the numbers over last year. Scotland is seriously addressing the issues by giving the health and mental health support necessary to reduce chances of death or serious harm. Alas Northern Ireland and England is where work needs to be done to end this tragedy.

“Political will, voices from the top, mixed in with a cutting through of promise to delivery is what is called for. The tragedy of 1,611 deaths from the damage done by poverty, leading to addiction is something that we could eliminate, if government seriously put resources into not allowing poverty to be all that you have at birth.”

Francesca Albanese, Crisis’ executive director of policy and social change, said Labour’s upcoming long-term strategy to tackle homelessness must be revealed urgently.

“We are talking here about real people, including children – not just numbers. These are lives cut short and potential unrealised. In many cases, these deaths will have been avoidable,” said Albanese. “Each year, more people are forced into homelessness, often trapped for long periods in emergency accommodation. We know how much damage that can do to your health. 

 “But it doesn’t need to be this way. We need to get on a build social housing so that people have access to affordable, settled homes. We also need to unfreeze housing benefit to stop people from being pushed into poverty and to prevent rising homelessness. The solutions are known – they now need to be urgently implemented otherwise we risk seeing more appalling and unnecessary loss of life.” 

Homelessness minister Alison McGovern said: “These figures are heartbreaking. Every loss of a life, especially the death of a child is an abject failure that cannot be tolerated.

“We simply cannot accept this as normal. Every person deserves a safe place to call home, which is why we are accelerating efforts to tackle the root causes of homelessness, expanding access to safe accommodation whilst also strengthening support services.”

MoH, who took over the count from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism after it began in 2017, uses Freedom of Information requests, coroners’ reports, media coverage and family testimonies to count each death.

That’s in contrast to the National Records of Scotland and the Office for New Statistics (ONS) that uses modelling to estimate some deaths in their counts. The ONS has not published official statistics on homeless deaths since 2021.

MoH will be joining frontline groups, including Simon Community, Streets Kitchen and The Outside Project, to hold a vigil outside Downing Street from 6pm today (9 October). All are welcome to remember the people who died. 

People are invited to light a candle there or at home and post it online with the hashtag #MakeThemCount.

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