Has Homeless Rough Sleeping in the UK and Europe been Solved in the Wake of the Covid-19 Pandemic?

The Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 exposed the failures of housing policy in England (and in many countries across the globe). Housing Benefit costs have risen by 40% in the last decade, according to the Affordable Housing Commission (2020) report. The size of the private rented sector has doubled in the last three decades, and during the same period Right to Buy Sales have seen over two million properties lost from the social housing sector. In recent years ‘affordable’ has lost its meaning in relation to housing. Up to 80% of market rent is not affordable for many, and has created a growing benefits bill, trapping young people in their parental home, priced out of their grown-up futures. Misery has grown for those who cannot access anywhere to live - rough-sleeping figures have increased by 141% in the last decade (Homeless Link, 2020). Covid-19, however, has brought housing disadvantage and social inequalities into stark relief