Britain fixed homelessness during lockdown – briefly. Can it do it again?

Julian had lived a “normal life” as a laborer, living with his grandmother in affordable public housing in North London. When she died last December, Julian was left out on the streets in the middle of a pandemic. Now, a year later, he remains without a home as winter’s freezing temperatures begin to set in.

With an estimated 280,000 people homeless in England – many of them sleeping outdoors, or “rough” as it is called here – he’s not alone.

But a glimmer of hope emerged after 2020 showed a decline in the number of rough sleepers dying in the streets – the first such drop in almost a decade. inside emergency accommodations at the onset of lockdown in March 2020.