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PA Media
The number of people sleeping rough in England is at its highest level since records began in 2010.
Some 4,793 people were estimated to be sleeping on the streets on a single night last autumn, according to the latest snapshot figures released by the government on Thursday - a 3% increase from 2024.
The number of female rough sleepers rose by 8% to 733, while there were 3,938 men and another 122 cases where the gender was not recorded.
The government said £50m of funding, provided over three years, would be provided to councils and frontline homelessness services.
London has the highest number of rough sleepers -1,277 - but the rate of rough sleeping rose steepest year-on-year in the north east of England, where numbers increased by 31% to 162.
For the past seven years in Leeds, the Homeless Street Angels charity has been providing food, shoes, sleeping bags and blankets for rough sleepers.
Each Thursday, dozens of people queue for support awaiting their arrival - and the charity says that demand is rising.
"It's getting worse and worse, week in, week out," the organisation's co-founder Becky Joyce says in the cold February air.
"[There are] a lot of new faces tonight, which is quite upsetting because the more people we think we get off the streets, the more people are coming on the streets."
They currently make 240 food boxes each week, double the amount produced three years ago, handing them out as they make their way through the city's streets.
Less than half way round their usual route, they run out of meals.
Becky Joyce says demand for their support has risen sharply
Josh has been homeless for more than a year after losing his rented home.
"I have to walk two hours a day to come into town to get food," he says, preferring to find shelter outside of the city centre where he feels safer, sleeping in a one-man tent under a bridge.
Josh says he has the "determination" to turn things around and is trying to apply for social housing. But without a phone, it can be difficult contacting his social worker and he struggles with the process.
"I'm going to keep sticking at it until I get a home," he says.
Josh walks two hours into the city centre for a food parcel
Not all the individuals the charity supports are rough sleepers - some will be sofa surfing, others may have recently moved into accommodation.
Gareth, 31, was helped into accommodation six months ago.
"One day I just woke up and after a year-and-a-half on the streets I thought, 'I need to do something'," he says, remembering how he approached a local charity for support.
Most people Gareth encountered while he was sleeping on the streets were kind, but he says some made critical comments and stole his possessions in the night.
Having a place to stay has been transformational.
"It makes you feel a better person," he says.
Charities believe finding people accommodation is only half the battle. The next step is stopping people returning to the streets, and Gareth has come along as much for the mental health boost of seeing familiar faces as for the food parcel.
But Homeless Street Angels says there is only so much it can do.
It is regularly contacted by probation services requesting free sleeping bags and food parcels for those released from prison with nowhere to go.
Over the past three years the number of people sleeping rough in Leeds has risen 75% - from 37 to 65 -according to the snapshot data, although the 2025 figure is down slightly on the 69 rough sleepers recorded in 2024.
"It's only me and my twin sister," says Becky Joyce. "How long can we keep going when the need is getting bigger and bigger?"
Gareth says his quality of life has been transformed since he was helped into accommodation
The figures for 2025 are the highest since records began in 2010. The previous peak was in 2017.
There was a 5% rise year-on-year on the number of people born in the UK sleeping rough.
Charities say the figures are likely to underestimate the true scale of the issue, as only those sleeping rough on one single night in the autumn are counted.
Separate data published on Thursday showed the number of families living in temporary accommodation has also reached a new high.
Between July and September 2025, 134,760 households were living in hotels, B&Bs and flats – an increase of 6.9% on the same period in 2024.
Of these households, 85,730 include children.
The government has pledged to halve "long-term rough sleeping" by 2030 and prevent more households from becoming homeless in the first place.
