Recommendation 11

The Department publishes one official measure of rough sleeping, its annual snapshot, which estimates the number of people sleeping rough on one night every autumn.34 The latest annual snapshot of figure before the pandemic, taken in autumn 2019 was 4,266.35 In contrast, the number of people assisted under Everyone In after ten months (from the end of March 2020 to the end of January 2021) was 37,430, nearly nine times higher.36 The Department told us it was not surprising that there was a significant difference between the two numbers: the 4,266 snapshot is a measure of the “stock” of people sleeping on the streets at that particular moment in time, whereas the 37,430 figure captures the “flow” of people moving onto the streets (and then into emergency or settled accommodation) over a period of months.37 Another reason for the discrepancy is that the 37,430 figure includes those who would otherwise have been bedding down in communal night shelters, as well as others who were adjudged to be at risk of sleeping rough, groups who are excluded from the snapshot figures.38 The Department was clear that the snapshot provided a robust measure that allowed for year on-year comparisons, but that it did not reflect the total population of people sleeping rough over the course of a year.39