Just last month, Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner announced a £442 million government package to tackle rough sleeping and homelessness in England, with plans to get thousands of people off the streets by Christmas. It’s so heartening to see homelessness and housing rising up the political agenda at last.
But rough sleeping isn’t the whole picture. Getting people off the streets requires the right housing, the right support and somewhere to go next. Alongside this renewed interest is another housing crisis that receives much less airtime: the predicament facing people experiencing active addiction and those in early recovery.
If we’re serious about ending homelessness rather than simply moving people out of sight, we need to talk about it.
I started working in homelessness in Dublin just before the Celtic Tiger years. Every morning, we’d print out the private rental listings from the newspapers and then spend the day on the phone to landlords, working out, client by client, whether they’d have to downplay their drug and alcohol use just to be considered for a room. Nearly 20 years on, that hasn’t really changed.
The EF approach
At Emerging Futures, we believe everyone should have somewhere to live, something to do and someone to love. For people affected by drug and alcohol use, those three things aren’t separate from recovery, they’re the foundations on which it’s built.
Supported accommodation is important, but so is recovery housing, stable accommodation combined with the structure, relationships and support people need to build a life beyond dependence.
It’s complex and multifaceted. Someone actively using may need harm reduction, someone six months into recovery could need help rebuilding routines, someone years in may be ready for greater independence. Too often we ask one part of the system to meet all of these needs.
Where the system works against recovery
Registered housing providers often won’t accept people who are using substances, frequently because supporting someone through addiction carries real risk of relapse, overdose and death and many providers aren’t funded or staffed to manage that risk safely.
Then there’s ‘local connection’. Sending someone back to where they previously lived can make sense, but if that’s also where their use developed or their relationships are unsafe, it can undermine rather than support recovery.
Also, recovery isn’t linear, so we need a step-up, step-down model that lets people move between levels of accommodation and support without falling out of the system. Right now, a relapse can have a domino effect, someone can lose their placement, then their stability, then their support.
The people policy keeps missing
Women experiencing issues with drugs and alcohol are often also dealing with trauma, domestic abuse, exploitation or unsafe relationships. Yet women who are still using or in early recovery can find themselves excluded from the services they need because they’re expected to become ‘clean’ first, a wider pattern in which women who use substances disappear between services and priorities.
Homelessness, substance misuse and abuse can’t be treated as separate issues. Safety and recovery need to happen together.
What actually works and what needs to happen next
We already know some of the ingredients. Step-up, step-down recovery housing provides continuity as needs change. Peer-led recovery coaching bridges treatment and the ordinary things that make a life meaningful, volunteering, employment, education, relationships. Charities and community organisations matter too, they see the whole person, not a single issue. We also need to shift more energy upstream, with a stronger focus on preventing homelessness and addiction before people reach crisis point, not only responding once harm has already happened.
Recovery housing needs dedicated, multi-year funding in its own right, not competing with supported accommodation or crisis beds. We also need more move-on housing, so people ready for independence aren’t stuck in higher-support places that others urgently need. And harm-reduction accommodation still matters for people not yet ready to stop using, keeping them safe and connected while creating room for recovery when they’re ready.
This political moment is a real opportunity to have this conversation. New funding and national leadership matter and so does recognising charities as essential partners on the ground. But lasting change needs funding to match the ambition.
Getting people off the streets is a great goal, but the solution needs to consider the complexity of individuals’ needs. Or we’ll simply be relocating this crisis back into A&E, back into the criminal justice system, and back onto the streets.
