Homelessness is not a personal choice or inevitable

Debates about the role of “lifestyle choice” among people experiencing homelessness resurfaced at the end of 2023 after widely reported assertions by the then UK home secretary, Suella Braverman.1 For the many people experiencing homelessness and the professionals who work with them, a choice narrative is unrecognisable.

A large 2021 meta-analysis found that in high income countries people are usually tipped into homelessness by psychological trauma.2 Homelessness is often the most visible of an inter-related group of circumstances called severe and multiple disadvantage—when people with many negative life experiences (including poverty), often starting in childhood, are let down by services failing to provide appropriate support or causing further harm.3 The UK government’s austerity policies undermining public services, third sector funding, and benefits make already difficult circumstances more precarious.45 Moreover, housing policy across the UK has not provided affordable housing stock fast enough to meet growing need.6 …