How can we end rough sleeping when frontline workers are facing burnout?

When the prime minister stood on the steps of Downing Street and made ending rough sleeping the “first instruction” of his government, it sent a badly needed wave of optimism through the homelessness sector.

Many of us have argued for years that ending rough sleeping is ultimately a question of political will – with record numbers forced to sleep on our streets, a clear focus and determination from national government was required. It is hard to imagine a clearer expression of that will than the commitment Andy Burnham has made and since reiterated.

But political ambition alone is not enough.

Delivering it will depend on overcoming the structural barriers that have become a daily frustration for homelessness workers, and supporting a workforce already under enormous pressure. New research from St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity reveals the extent of that pressure. Representing the cumulative perspectives of frontline homeless sector staff working with more than 20,000 people experiencing homelessness, more than half said their role had an overall negative impact on their wellbeing, while well over a quarter felt at risk of burnout.

The reasons are not difficult to understand.

More than four in five workers reported difficulties finding suitable housing for the people they support, while around three-quarters struggled to access the mental health services they needed.

Ask someone who has escaped homelessness what made the difference, and they will often tell you about a particular support worker. Someone who listened, understood their circumstances, built their trust and helped them believe that a different future was possible.

These relationships matter enormously. Frontline workers bring empathy, expertise and persistence to some of the most challenging circumstances imaginable. They navigate complicated systems, advocate for people who have struggled to be heard and help restore confidence to those who may have lost it. And when everything comes together they can achieve huge results.

But then, there can be few jobs where you spend so much of your working day navigating systems so stretched that securing the right outcome can feel more like a matter of luck than a reflection of someone’s needs.

Consider the worker supporting someone who has finally reached the point where they are ready to move into a home of their own. Having built trust, overcome setbacks and helped them towards independence, they discover that suitable accommodation simply isn’t available or affordable.

These are not problems that can be solved through greater determination or professional expertise alone. No amount of persistence can conjure an affordable home where one doesn’t exist.

Read more:

• Andy Burnham: ‘I’m not naive. You can’t say there will be nobody sleeping rough after Christmas’
• Will chancellor John Healey unfreeze local housing allowance at the autumn budget?
• Housing First promised to be a silver bullet to solve homelessness. Why are we still waiting?  

Take the local housing allowance (LHA), for example: almost nine in 10 respondents to our survey said finding accommodation within LHA rates was difficult or very difficult. It’s hard to imagine many professions where something so fundamental would be so inadequate.

Despite this, the government’s commitment to getting “everyone in” this Christmas, backed by a £442 million funding package, is a welcome start. Additional emergency accommodation and support can make an enormous difference to people facing another winter on the streets.

But getting someone off the streets and supporting them to escape homelessness for good are not the same thing. Without appropriate housing and access to the services people need, there is a real danger that some individuals will find themselves back in crisis.

These failures take their toll. First and foremost on people experiencing homelessness, but also on the workers supporting them, who can find themselves forced to accept outcomes they know fall short of what is needed.

In some ways, working in homelessness services requires you to carry on in defiance of reality. To instil hope in someone who may already have given up, even as your own efforts are repeatedly frustrated by a shortage of housing, inaccessible services and inadequate resources.

We cannot expect frontline workers to restore hope in others while continually undermining their own belief that they can make a difference. And particularly when just under half of them report that their pay is not sufficient to meet their own living costs.

The government has an opportunity to change that.

It can start in this month’s budget by ensuring that LHA reflects the actual cost of renting. It must also invest in the supply of suitable, affordable housing and ensure mental health and other essential services are accessible to those who need them.

And it must recognise the value of the workforce itself, ensuring frontline staff receive the pay, support and conditions their vital work deserves. The services they work in require sufficient funding and certainty of funding for the long-term that they can recruit and crucially develop and retain them.

Our survey reveals a workforce with the experience, expertise and determination to help end rough sleeping. What they need now is a system that enables them to succeed, and not just for Christmas. Bringing people in must just be the start, ending rough sleeping and helping everyone into a place to call home will require continued and concerted action in the months and years that follow.

The prime minister has given the country an ambition to believe in. Now we must give the people on the frontline the tools they need to achieve it.

Duncan Shrubsole is CEO of St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity

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