Using World Homeless Day to bring about change

TODAY is World Homeless Day, an event launched in 2010 and observed in 100+ countries worldwide.

Its purpose is to benchmark progress and celebrate good work but while there is much good work taking place, sadly in terms of overall homelessness in the UK, there seems to be very little progress.

In fact, every day there seems to be a shocking new statistic that underlines just how dire the UK’s housing, and therefore homelessness, situation currently is. Making headlines recently includes:

• One in every 200 households in the UK is living in emergency temporary accommodation putting the UK at the top of homelessness rankings for the developed world*
• Some 237,950 households sought help to prevent or relieve homelessness in England in 2024*
• A record 165,510 children are now living in temporary accommodation with a disproportionate number of single parent families – one in every 24 – facing homelessness**

All this comes at a cost, both financially and personally. UK councils spent £2.8 billion on temporary accommodation in 2024/25, a 25% increase on the previous year**. But more sobering is the impact that homelessness has on life expectancy; the average life expectancy for a homeless man is 44 years-old and for homeless women it is 42*** - nearly half what it is for the general population.

All this must surely ring alarm bells and wave massive red flags to indicate just how fundamentally flawed the housing system is in the UK? Which leads to another purpose of World Homeless Day – to advocate for improved policies and funding that can help prevent and end homelessness.

That’s where Turning Lives Around comes in. As a charity dedicated to preventing homelessness in West Yorkshire, we work with more than 1200 men, women, families and young people a year. Our aim is to help the currently homeless as well as those at risk of homelessness and while there are regrettably plenty of people out there who are in the same position due to rocketing rental costs, landlords selling up or tenants losing jobs for instance, all our clients are at even greater disadvantage because of personal challenges, trauma or other complex needs which increase their vulnerability.

At TLA we are working with others in our sector to campaign for fundamental changes at government level to tackle once and for all the UK’s housing crisis.

More must be done so hardworking families don’t find themselves living in a single room in B&B accommodation because of a lack of suitable affordable homes and to provide supported housing for those – like our clients – who need that extra help to literally turn their lives around.

Today is also World Mental Health Day. It can’t be coincidence that World Homeless Day and World Mental Health Day fall on the same day. The correlation between the two is remarkable. Many of our clients have poor mental health that has contributed to their homelessness while for others becoming homeless for other reasons is a contributing factor to a decline in their mental health. Whichever way you look at it, mental health and homelessness are indelibly linked.

The final purpose of World Homeless Day is to raise awareness about the needs of those experiencing homelessness and to promote work that alleviates suffering and prevents death. And that is what some of our colleagues will be doing today.

Our CEO Steve Hoey and Fundraising and Development Manager Paul Belbin will be at Leeds City Museum taking part in A Summit for Change, an event organised by Leeds Street Support Partnership to bring together people and organisations with a shared interest in actively collaborating to achieve systemic and practical change to help prevent homelessness and rough sleeping.

At the same time TLA colleagues Amanda Bennett and Jessica Mellor will be at Department Leeds Dock which is home to 60+ thriving businesses in the media, creative and digital sectors telling the people who work there about TLA, the amazing work we do and how they can help.

World Homeless Day is a great opportunity to spotlight homelessness, but it is just one day. Preventing homelessness and dealing with the impact of it in a bid to break the cycle for hundreds of people is our reality at TLA and a 24/7 352 days a year challenge we are proud to rise to. You can help. Follow us on LinkedIn, donate here  or reach out to us at info@turninglivesaround.co.uk or contact us to find out more.

*Big Issue **Shelter ***Office for National Statistics 2018