Deaths of homeless people in UK reach record high in 2024

According to latest estimates, the number of people who died while homeless in the United Kingdom hit a new high last year. According to the Museum of Homelessness, which compiles the reports, 1,611 homeless people died in 2024. The figure is up 9% from the year before, with the overwhelming majority of deaths being related to suicide or opioids, with spice and nitazenes becoming more deadly. The deaths, according to Matthew Turtle, museum director,

show how homeless people are still struggling. Minister Alison McGovern described the findings as

heartbreakingand said the government wasaccelerating efforts to address homelessness's root causes.

'Increasing levels of poverty'

The data is assembled using reports obtained from coroner's courts, media coverage, family testimony, and Freedom of Information requests. Official statistics on the number of deaths of homeless people are no longer available by the government. Anthony Marks, 51, was assaulted in August 2024 near London's King's Cross station while hiding in a bin shed. Following a seizure and death, two weeks after being released from hospital, he was readmitted. Four people have been charged with murder in connection with his death. We shouldn't be surprised people are dying on our streets, according to Tim Renshaw, chief executive of Sheffield's Archer Project, a homeless charity.

We have one of the worst practices in terms of providing housing to the poorest. We're investigating how homelessness is linked to health conditions - trauma, depression, and anxiety. And we've increasing levels of poverty.

In November 2024, three homeless women died in Sheffield within ten days. A woman in her 40s was buried without a single person attending her funeral. She'd been known to homeless services in Sheffield for a number of years, according to Mr Renshaw, but the name they knew her by was not her registered name. No one recognized her when she was arranged in her official name. It was an absolute tragedy, he said.

We had people coming to us and saying they'd like to have attended her funeral.

There were three quarters of the 1,611 people who died homeless in 2024, three quarter were men. People who were in temporary or supported housing were responsible for two-thirds of the deaths, while the others were sleeping rough. Eleven children were children, though the Ministry said the true figure was likely to be higher. According to the statistics, 1,142 deaths in England were recorded in England, an increase of 16% year on year. The highest number of people died in London, but the most notable rises were in Nottingham, where the number of deaths doubled to 22, and Exeter, where they more than doubled from eight to 21. Between 2023 and 2024, deaths in Northern Ireland increased by more than a third to 211. Wales saw a modest annual decrease, from 97 to 90. Overall, there was an 18% drop in Scotland from 206 to 168. Both Glasgow and Edinburgh's deaths decreased by around 40%, according to the Museum of Homelessness. The figures were compiled by the museum's Dying Homeless Project. It claims that its methodology does not include any estimates, and that it is the only organization collecting the data since the Office of National Statistics stopped doing so in 2022. According to official statistics, the deaths occurred as the number of people living in temporary accommodation across the United Kingdom is at historic highs, while the number in people rough sleeping in England increased 20% in 2024 to 4,667.

Child deaths 'cannot be tolerated'

Since Labour took power, experts working with homeless people say they have yet to see any significant policy changes. Labour's pledge to building 180,000 homes for social rent over the next decade is welcome, but they complain that consistent multi-year funding to address the problem is so far behind.

Anga Rayner, the former housing minister and [former homelessness minister] Rushanara Ali, who resigned in 2025, lays bare the lack of leadership on homelessness and housing at all levels of government in the face of the country's worst homelessness crisis,

Mr Turtle said. Alison McGovern, the homeless minister, said that the government was

expanding access to safe accommodation whilst also increasing support services.

Any loss of a life, especially the death of a child, is an abject failure that cannot be tolerated,

she said. Debby Wakeham is the first to take action, but it will be too late. Richard Sanders, her son, died in a homeless hostel in south London earlier this year. Mr Sanders, 56, suffered with heroin use and mental health problems for many years. Ms Wakeham, 76, said she called his hostel for two days after struggling to reach him in May. A manager eventually told her that

you shouldn't have to hear it this way,she said, although he died last Wednesday.He had been dead nine days by then,

she recalls. Despite leaving her number with them following a previous visit, the hostel told her they didn't have their next-of-kin information. Mr Sanders' body had been ruled out before his mother learned he'd died and his clothes had been destroyed before she could retrieve them. She also doesn't have a definite cause of death.

I'm livid,she said,I wouldn't even know now [he died] if I hadn't continued to ring. How homeless people are still so poor, Mr Turtle said of the museum's inquiry.