The link between homelessness and declining mental health

The number of people who are homeless with a mental health diagnosis has risen by 37 percent in the last decade.*

In Kent, 194 people** are sleeping rough each night; many of them dealing with challenging mental health problems that make it difficult for them to regain their independence and leave homelessness behind for good.

As both World Homeless Day and World Mental Health Day approach (10 October), our chief executive Tom Neumark says it’s a reminder that we cannot hope to tackle one issue without addressing the other.

“Mental health and homelessness are deeply connected… yet too often treated as separate issues. To properly address the UK’s growing homelessness crisis, we must confront the mental health issues that accompany it.

“When people are in crisis with nowhere to turn, things can quickly spiral out of control. For some, that spiral ends in homelessness. Breaking this cycle requires compassion, support and systemic change.”

How homelessness and mental health fuel each other

When you’re in survival mode - whether that’s trying to keep a roof over your head or staying alive on the streets - prioritising your mental health is extremely difficult. One client who lived in a car for nine months was pushed to her physical and mental limit.

“There’s nowhere to make your own food, there’s no predictability about how you’ll provide for yourself. You don’t have room to think about anything else.

“Things are out of your control, but you feel like you’ve failed at life, like you’re inadequate. You don’t have the pride of being self-sufficient and you don’t have a home to go to. You feel like there’s something wrong with you, you’re unlovable. You’re scraping around for basic amenities to stay alive and supply some self-respect.

“My head was in a dark place. It had taken me down a route of self-harm which made it more difficult for me to get housed.”

She’s unsure that she would have survived the winter if Porchlight hadn’t intervened.

Sadly, her experience is all too common.

What we’re doing to help break the cycle

Our services are designed so housing and mental health support go hand in hand.

To prevent mental health problems pushing people into homelessness, we:

• We lead Live Well Kent & Medway – a countywide network of organisations that helps people to manage mental health problems while tackling root causes such as debt, insecure housing and unemployment.
• We work as part of Mental Health Together – an NHS-led community support service for people with mental health problems. They are helped to navigate their recovery and access both one-to-one and community support.

To support people who are homeless we:

• Have workers that specialise in supporting people on the streets who have complex mental health needs
  
• Work alongside NHS mental health teams and other organisations to ensure people are getting the support they need once they have somewhere to live.
• Provide specialist ‘Housing First’ properties for people whose mental health issues are too complex for standard homelessness services – helping even those who’ve been homeless for more than 15 years to rebuild their lives.

What needs to change

We’re doing what we can, but this issue is bigger than us. Homelessness is rising and more people are seeking mental health support, but real change requires government investment and strategy to prevent thousands more people from ending up in a perilous situation.

*Homeless Link research found that the number of people who were homeless and had a mental health diagnosis was 45% in 2014. That figure increased to 82% in its 2018 – 2021 cohort.

**At the time of writing, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government had reported 194 people sleeping rough in Kent — though the true number is likely much higher. There are likely many more people, especially women who’ve experienced abuse, who feel the need to remain hidden to stay safe.