Homelessness: What drives it and what's needed to end it

For six months in 2013, David Tovey lived inside his red Peugeot 203. In August 2024, that car became the centrepiece of an exhibition on homelessness in the UK – transformed by Tovey himself into a house-shaped sculpture.

Homelessness: Reframed at the Saatchi Gallery in London was opened by Prince William’s Homewards programme, which over five years aims to scale innovative solutions to prevent and end homelessness.

It’s hoped the exhibition will improve the UK’s “understanding of homelessness and inspire optimism that it can be ended”.

Tovey, an award-winning artist, who is also the co-director of Arts and Homelessness International, said of his sculpture Home 2013: “I wanted to tell the truth about what is out there and what is happening. There are thousands of people living in cars.”

There wasn’t just one thing that led to Tovey living in his car: he was in his 30s and had gone back to university after having a stroke and losing his businesses, he told the Big Issue magazine. He was in poor mental and physical health and struggled with addiction and alcoholism.

“Instead of saying one-size-fits-all, let’s say there’s a multitude of reasons why someone becomes homeless, let’s give them a multitude of solutions and choices to get out of it. It’s simple isn’t it?”

What it means to be homeless is different for everyone and depends on where you are in the world, so country comparisons can be difficult.

It can be defined as living in a shelter, or a place not fit for human habitation, or being in a transitional phase of housing – and internal displacement from conflict or natural disasters may or may not be taken into account.

Across the globe, UN Habitat estimates that as many as 1.6 billion people – or more than one in five – live in ‘inadequate, crowded and unsafe housing’.

In its Envisaging the Future of Cities report, the agency says: “Although slums and informal settlements are characteristics of cities in low- and middle-income countries, some cities in developed countries are also experiencing inequalities in housing.

“London, for example, has experienced an appalling surge in homelessness because of restrictive urban housing markets.”

In fact, the UK has one of the highest populations experiencing homelessness in OECD countries, according to data from 2023, with 16 people in every 100,000 people living on the streets and 410 per 100,000 living in temporary accommodation or shelters.

More than 300,000 people in the UK – half of them children – are thought to be sleeping on friends’ sofas or in cars or other forms of temporary accommodation.

It’s estimated that around 14 million people in the UK live in relative poverty and the number of people relying on food banks has surged from 25,000 in 2009 to more than 3 million in 2024.

In the US, the number of people living on the streets is 76 per 100,000, with 117 per 100,000 staying in temporary housing.

Of the half million people experiencing homelessness in the US in 2022, around one in five lived in either Los Angeles or New York, with half of all unsheltered people living in California, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Japan reportedly has the lowest rate of homelessness among OECD countries, with just two people living on the street per 100,000 people.

In April 2024, the Japan Times reported homelessness had reached a record low, falling by 8% in the year to January, to just 2,820 people, with the highest population in Osaka.

At the other end of the spectrum, more than 50% of Pakistan’s urban population live in slums or informal settlements – ‘katchi abadis’ – as the country’s housing crisis means there is a deficit of nine million homes.

Pakistan is extremely vulnerable to natural disasters: the flooding in 2022 affected 33 million people.

UK homelessness charity Crisis lists some of the many reasons people are forced into homelessness, which vary from poverty and a lack of affordable housing to losing a job, mental or physical health problems, and, often in the case of women, violent or abusive relationships.

Since the COVID pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis sparked by high inflation has made it even more difficult for people to buy homes in the UK, while the cost of renting is rising.

Being homeless can make it harder to hold down a job and exacerbates existing mental and physical health conditions. In fact, people experiencing homelessness are more than twice as likely as the general population to report a physical health condition (78% vs 37%), while almost half (44%) have a mental health diagnosis compared to less than a quarter among the general public.

Rates of drug and alcohol use are four times higher among people experiencing homelessness than in the general population and two-fifths report using substances to cope with mental health problems.

Finland has become the poster country for efforts to address homelessness, with its Housing First initiative, introduced in 2008, leading to a 76% reduction in the number of people without somewhere to call home.

The Housing First policy in Finland is a human rights strategy guided by a set of core principles – and involves collaboration between the state, cities and local NGOs to transform short-term shelters into affordable housing, with efforts driven by a shared goal to end homelessness.

Housing First prioritizes permanent housing as a first step to address homelessness, giving apartments to those, as newsmagazine Speigel points out, might not qualify for a shelter in some cities or countries.

While aid programs in other countries require complete abstinence from substances, that is required just in Housing First public spaces and residents have a team of therapists, doctors, social workers and even a first-of-its kind empathy consultant providing care and support around the clock.

The Housing First model was originated by Canadian clinical psychologist Dr Sam Tsemberis who advocated providing housing and on-site support for people with a history of mental illness and substance abuse, as a way to end homelessness.

Housing First, which began in 1992 as a five-year trial by Dr Tsemberis in New York called Pathways to Housing, has since been adopted around the world, from Argentina to Australia, and the Nordic nations of Denmark, Norway and, perhaps most successfully, Finland.

“What’s frustrating about homelessness is you can solve it right away. It’s not like you need to develop a cure,” Tsemberis told Global Citizen. “There is so much evidence showing how Housing First works, but it takes political will.”

In the UK, there are six locations taking part in Prince Williams’ Homewards programme – from Lambeth in London, to Sheffield in Yorkshire – with local action plans in place for each.

“Homewards aims to give people across the UK hope that homelessness can be prevented by showing them the progress we can make when we collaborate,” says the Prince.

“It’s a big task, but I firmly believe that by working together it is possible to make homelessness rare, brief and unrepeated, and I am very much looking forward to working with our six locations to make our ambition a reality.”

As Crisis says, the best way to tackle homelessness is to “stop it happening in the first place”, by ensuring those vulnerable to homelessness, such as people leaving prison or care, have a home.

In January, the World Economic Forum published Reshaping Affordability: Interventions for Inclusive and Liveable Cities, which brings together ideas on how to make cities affordable through land use, sustainable communities and inclusive design.

“Access to adequate housing and basic services is fundamental to affordable and accessible cities. This starts with investing in formalizing informal housing for the one in eight people who live in slums worldwide,” write Jonathan Reckford, CEO, Habitat for Humanity International and Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr.

To achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 of ‘decent housing for all’ by 2030, governments must “prioritize adequate housing” by “increasing financial commitments … and making meaningful policy changes”.

They outline three steps for governments to alleviate the housing crisis: prioritizing land tenure security, strengthening climate-resilient housing and expanding finance for housing.

The collection of articles includes one on how Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas is aiming to re-establish the affordable housing supply through an $870 million public investment plan and a mix of short-term solutions and long-term investments.

Such initiatives bring hope but also reinforce the need for policymakers and communities across the globe to work together and put in place effective policies and interventions to end homelessness – in all its forms.

“Much like the urban affordability and affordable housing crisis, there is no single solution to homelessness,” says Kristy Henrich Klein, the World Economic Forum’s Urban Innovation Lead.

“It is a complex problem with diverse root causes that must be tackled through multi-dimensional programmes.”

Homelessness: Reframed is at the Saatchi Gallery in London until 20 September, 2024.