Bite-sized Briefing - Nations apart? Experience of single homeless people across Great Britain

As part of the support we offer our members DrugScope's policy team send out a monthly round-up and précis of reports which we believe are of interest to the field. The following is offered as an example of the content of our Bite-sized Briefing for January.

A new report from the homelessness charity Crisis provides a profile of the single homeless population in Great Britain.

It draws on Freedom of Information requests to local authorities, a survey of 480 single homeless people across 17 local authorities, as well as detailed follow-up interviews.

Key findings from the survey results include:

• 48% of homeless people have faced drug dependency and 46% alcohol dependency at some point in their lives (pp. 11-12)
• People are more likely to have multiple support needs if they have experienced several homeless experiences (p. 28)
• The proportion of homeless people experiencing alcohol dependency increases steadily with age, while drug dependency is consistently high between the ages of 21 and 50 (p. 14)

The in-depth interviews also provide evidence that:

• Where people become homeless when asked to leave accommodation by friends or family, this often follows a “lengthy period of difficulty revolving around their substance misuse” (p. 24)
• “Where positive support provision was reported it generally related to provision by the third sector and particularly those involved in addressing substance misuse issues” (p. 44)

Read the full report

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