Homelessness deaths in UK rise by nearly 10 per cent

A record 1,611 homeless people, including 11 children, died in 2024, according to new figures, which lay bare the shocking impact of the UK’s housing crisis.

- HOLLY BANCROFT

Four of the children were babies under the age of one and came as homelessness deaths rose 9 per cent on the year before - up from 1,474 deaths in 2023, and 1,313 in 2022, the research from The Museum of Homelessness revealed.

Homelessness has been on the rise in recent years, with the 178,560 households assessed as homeless by councils in 2023-24, a 12.3 per cent increase on the previous year.

Over half of the deaths recorded last year were classed as “deaths of despair”, meaning the person died by suicide or the deaths were drug or alcohol-related.

In one case, a man died within weeks of being released from an NHS mental health centre without a community treatment order that would have seen him supervised by doctors. Barnaby Spicer, who had a history of psychosis, died in November 2024 after he was released from Redwoods Centre in Shrewsbury.

His family said that they wrote to the mental health trust over concerns for Mr Spicer’s safety before his death. The NHS trust that runs the centre has reportedly launched an internal inquiry into Mr Spicer’s care.

In another case, an unnamed man was found dead inside a tent pitched outside an Asda supermarket in Leicester in early December, with police deeming the death not suspicious.