News / homelessness
‘Concerning’ rise in homelessness in Bristol
Homelessness is on the rise in Bristol with more people sleeping rough and staying in temporary housing according to the latest figures.
Expensive rents across the city and an “extremely perilous economic situation” were blamed for the rise.
Between July and September 2025, there were 1,792 households staying in temporary accommodation, an increase from the 1,705 households recorded in the previous three months.
There were also 98 people sleeping rough during the same period, up by ten per cent since the previous count.
An update on the latest figures was given to councillors on the housing policy committee on Friday.
Labour councillor Zoё Peat said: “These are things that we’re not doing well on that are quite concerning.
“To me it’s very linked to temporary accommodation. It feels like sometimes the goals of this committee don’t often align with the actual things that we say we’re going to achieve sometimes.”
Peat pointed to a recent two-year policy where some council homes would be used as temporary accommodation, in a bid to cut exorbitant costs paid to landlords to provide emergency housing.
When the committee approved this policy, one councillor described the move as like “robbing Peter to pay Paul” as there would then be fewer council homes for people to live in long term.
Green committee chair Barry Parsons said: “We’re seeing homelessness and rough sleeping rise all over the country. It’s not just in Bristol.
“The reasons for that have to do with rising poverty, rising housing costs related to people’s income and an economic situation that’s extremely perilous for the most vulnerable people in our society.
“That’s not something that’s confined to Bristol.
“We have some really specific wicked challenges here in Bristol that have to do with the inaccessibility of our housing market to so many people.
“But behind all of this is an economy that’s failing the most vulnerable people in our society, people being pushed to the margins, and falling out of the safety nets and support they rely on.”
Parsons called on the government to provide “much more support” than Bristol City Council currently gets.
One problem faced by many councils is “subsidy loss” as the government covers only part of the cost of paying for temporary accommodation, based on housing costs in 2011 when everything was much cheaper.
This leaves Bristol losing millions of pounds every year.
On the other hand, the government recently announced extra funding for supported accommodation.
A lot of rough sleepers are on the streets not just due to a shortage of affordable housing but also because of problems with drug addictions and mental illness.
Supported housing, however, provides both a roof to sleep under and help dealing with these type of issues.
Bristol will be getting £10.1m over three years as part of the government’s plan to cut the numbers of homeless people sleeping rough.
The new Renters Rights Act should also help, as the leading cause of people becoming homeless in Bristol is getting evicted private tenancies.
Bristol City Council head of housing options, Paul Sylvester, said: “That’s an incredible investment in this city that will directly impact the number of people who are sleeping rough. So it’s really good news.
“We’re all getting quite excited about Renters Rights and keeping our fingers crossed about that.
“There’s lots of good stuff in there but there will be some hiccups around shifts in the sector.”
Main photo: Martin Booth
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