People leaving hospitals and prisons trapped in a “cycle of homelessness”

The all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on ending homelessness has warned that some people leaving hospitals and prisons are being “trapped in a cycle of homelessness” as a result of a lack of social housing and damaged public services, writing that they are unaware of their “duty to refer people” at risk of homelessness to local authorities.

Co-chair of the group, Bob Blackman MP, said that “more than a third of mainstream healthcare professionals didn’t know about the duty to refer”, as was introduced with the 2017 Homelessness Reduction Act.

Charity Homeless Link’s research has shown that 24% of homeless people going to hospital were discharged directly to the streets, and Ministry of Justice statistics shows 1/3 of prisoners are “released into homelessness”, according to the APPG.