There’s a rural homelessness crisis – but we have plans to tackle it

Worryingly, homelessness in rural areas has increased more than 40% in five years.

To combat this, we’ve put together plans for a Housing First scheme (specialist housing for people who struggle to engage with typical homelessness support) that could be trialled in rural East Kent.

Today (9 April), we’re meeting with housing associations and local councils to share these plans and ways in which they could be put into action.

“We see first-hand how the isolation of rural communities makes it particularly hard to escape and recover from homelessness,” says our chief executive Tom Neumark.

“Housing First has already proven transformative in the few rural areas where it operates. One person we supported had been living in woodland for four years because the only alternative was temporary accommodation miles away from his support network. Housing First enabled him to stay in his community while receiving the support he needed to rebuild his life.

“If the support is there, we want to work with housing associations like English Rural to expand this offer beyond urban areas."

The challenges of rural homelessness

Despite the prevailing image of homelessness occurring in cities, rural homelessness has seen a sharp increase in recent years. It’s a problem that’s largely invisible. People may sleep in woodland, barns or agricultural buildings where they’re hidden from view.

The reasons that people become homeless are similar to those in urban areas – namely, the cost of living crisis and lack of affordable housing. In fact, more than 300,000 households are on rural social housing waiting lists and at the current rate of social housing delivery, it would take 89 years to clear the backlog.

When someone becomes homeless, it can be difficult to access help due to being isolated and having limited transport options. This is compounded by a lack of rural homelessness support – rural areas receive 65% less funding per capita than their urban counterparts. Expecting them to travel across the county to access support is unrealistic.

According to research by the University of Kent and University of Southampton (published in 2023), people experiencing homelessness are being left isolated in rural communities.

How it could work in Kent

Porchlight, English Rural Housing Association and Commonweal Housing have conducted a feasibility study into supporting people in this way. It focused on East Kent and showed that people who aren’t suited to town housing – because it’s inappropriate or unsafe for them – will benefit. They’ll be provided with stable accommodation near their existing support networks.

The study also revealed that 8 to 12 Housing First homes (with one or two bedrooms each) would be needed across Ashford, Dover, Folkestone and Hythe, and Swale. English Rural would be able to provide four existing properties, and we hope that local authorities or housing associations can supply the rest.

Two Porchlight support workers and a part-time coordinator would be needed to provide the ongoing support to people who move in.

We’re sharing these ideas with housing associations and local councils in the hopes of kickstarting work that could bring about real change for people who are homeless in rural locations.

But we want to go further. That’s why we’re also calling on the government to:

• invest in a new tranche of rural Housing First provision

• commit to delivering genuinely affordable homes in rural communities using scaled-up Rural Exception Sites (small parcels of land on the edge of a rural settlement, not usually included in a local authority's development plan, that are considered for development to provide affordable housing in an exception to normal planning policies)

• dedicated investment to do this via the Homes England Affordable Homes Programme, which allocates grant funding to local authorities and housing associations to support the costs of developing affordable housing

• Ongoing financial support for Rural Housing Enablers who work to facilitate the development of affordable housing in rural communities.

Now is the time for a new generation of Housing First properties in rural areas. We must take serious steps to address this growing but hidden problem so that everyone has a safe home, better life and opportunity to build a future that’s right for them.