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.
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.
In August last year, a 46-year-old man, Alexander Colman, was also discovered dead inside the tent that he had made his home. He was found by a walker in the Fletchers Hill Inclosure, Rhinefield.
In another horrifying case, a homeless man reportedly starved to death in July 2024 after he trapped his arm trying to enter a house through a skylight.
Khaled Aribi, an Algerian asylum seeker from Camden, London, was discovered by an estate agent when she arrived to view the property, according to local newspaper Ham&High. The paper reported that he had been on a waiting list for counselling at the time of his death and was considered a very vulnerable adult. His death was ruled an accident by a coroner.
In the past three years, the proportion of those dying in temporary accommodation, including hotels, or supported accommodation has increased. The rise, which includes deaths in B&Bs and hostels, has outstripped the increase in the number of households in this type of accommodation, researchers found.
There were 11 children included in the data for last year, of which four were babies who had not yet reached their first birthday. Four others were aged between one and nine years old, and two children were aged between 15 and 17, while another’s age was unknown.
Researchers said it is likely the figures are lower than the true scale of the issue, but the 2024 figure was up from four in 2023. The Dying Homeless Project started recording deaths in 2017 in the absence of data from the Office for National Statistics.
The most recent government figures, published in July, showed the number of households in temporary accommodation in England had climbed to a new record high of 131,140 at the end of March 2025.
The number of children in temporary accommodation stood at 169,050 in March, up year-on-year from 151,540. It the highest figure since records began in 1998.
In January, a report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Households in Temporary Accommodation said 74 children, mostly babies, had died in recent years in England, with temporary accommodation recorded as a possible contributory factor.
Rick Henderson, chief executive of Homeless Link, called the spike in the number of people dying while homeless “tragic and unacceptable”, saying it was “a stark signal of the homelessness crisis we are facing”.
He added: “Not only are more people losing their home, but a growing number of these people are already facing unmet health and social care needs, which only worsen once homeless.”
Project director Matthew Turtle called for “urgent action” from the government and said the data “shows how homeless people continue to be deeply failed”.
Francesca Albanese, from charity Crisis, said more social housing was needed to ensure that people have access to “affordable, settled homes”, and urged the government to unfreeze housing benefit to stop people being pushed into poverty. She added: “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.”
Minister for homelessness Alison McGovern called the figures “heartbreaking”, adding: “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.”
