Homelessness

Housing homeless and vulnerable people has always been a key part of what housing associations do.  

Many housing associations were founded with the clear aim of helping to tackle rising homelessness. Today, housing associations continue to play an important role in ending homelessness, whether they are specialist organisations or general needs providers. 

How do housing associations help tackle homelessness?

Across the country, housing associations deliver a wide range of services to help prevent and solve homelessness. These include:

• Delivering homes for people experiencing homelessness. Housing associations allocate supported and general needs housing to people experiencing homelessness, giving people a safe place to call home.
• Supporting residents to keep their tenancies. Housing associations providing general needs homes help prevent homelessness by offering tenancy sustainment support to their residents, helping people to keep their homes.
• Providing supported housing for people experiencing homelessness. People experiencing homelessness sometimes have complex and multiple needs and may need support to live independently or recover from a crisis.

Our priorities for change

Across the country, homelessness has been rapidly rising, caused by a chronic shortage of social and affordable homes, and worsened by the cost-of-living crisis and a difficult funding landscape for housing providers.

A social home offers long-term security and affordability. With figures showing there are more than 1.3m people waiting for a social home, 4m in housing need who would benefit from a social home, 132,000 households stuck in temporary accommodation, it is clear we urgently need more social homes.

Housing associations play a major role in meeting this housing need, allocating 192,000 of 263,000 social homes available last year. In doing so, they support many people, including those who urgently need a home, current residents who are fleeing domestic violence, those experiencing overcrowding or people with medical needs.

Whether they are a supported housing or a general needs provider, housing associations play an important role in ending homelessness. Many housing associations also specifically identify as having a homelessness prevention service. In 2024/25, 28% of new social lettings were to statutory homeless households, up from 27% in 2023/24.

People experiencing homelessness sometimes have complex and multiple needs. Supported housing providers help people who needs support into safe homes, who might otherwise be facing homelessness.

Supported housing helps half a million people live as independently as possible in the community, within their own home. Housing associations provide three quarters of supported housing for rent, easing pressure on vital public services like the NHS and saving taxpayers £3.5bn per year. You can find out more about our members work providing supported housing here.

To help support ending homelessness for good, we have been calling on government to:

• Commit to long-term funding for supported housing.
• Invest more in homelessness prevention services, helping preserve wellbeing and save public money in the long-term.
• Ensure housing policy and welfare policy are designed in mutual acknowledgement of each other.