Skip to main content
NEU job vacancy
Uncovering the grim reality of Britain’s hidden homeless population
The government must urgently address hidden homelessness, introducing a package of adequate welfare provisions along with landlord regulation and access to habitable, affordable housing, writes BECK ROBERTSON

HOMELESSNESS is an ongoing problem within Britain, yet the term shouldn’t solely be reserved for those forced to sleep on the streets. There’s a growing number of people who can’t afford a mortgage or exorbitant monthly rents — many aren’t eligible for housing benefit, or their allowance is inadequate, while others are on subsistence wages and forced to exist in temporary, unsafe, or inhabitable accommodation.

In desperation, some have had to turn to more creative, albeit challenging solutions — and although the media likes to glorify #vanlife and “tiny living,” staying in cars, garages, or minivans in an effort to keep off the streets is far from glamorous.    

The government doesn’t count many of these people as homeless, yet without a fixed residential address, they are under British law — and as a result they slip through the net.    

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Various For Sale, Sold and Let By estate agent signs juxtaposed next to a Dreams store in Clapham, London
Class / 18 July 2025
18 July 2025

Our housing crisis isn’t an accident – it’s class war, trapping millions in poverty while landlords and billionaires profit. To solve it, we need comprehensive transformation, not mere tokenistic reform, writes BECK ROBERTSON

Fans make their way to the stadium ahead of the Sky Bet Cham
Britain / 27 February 2025
27 February 2025
Rough sleeping in England rises in a year with record numbers of children crammed into B&Bs
Members of the public walking past a homeless man begging in
Britain / 24 January 2025
24 January 2025
Ministers urged to unfreeze local housing allowance rates