Blog4 November 2026
The government’s ‘National Plan To End Homelessness’, is welcome in many respects. It is grounded in evidence. It is framed through a lens of prevention. Importantly, it is the first strategy to span all forms of homelessness rather than just rough sleeping, which was the focus of previous administrations.
And yet, there is a gap. The plan makes 27 references to schools in the context of embedding homelessness prevention upstream, within public services. And universities? Not a single mention.
Do we really think homelessness is not a serious issue among some of the 2.5 million higher education students in England? We have seen more anecdotal evidence of student homelessness in recent years. To be fair to the government, we have very little robust data; we have even less causal research to understand what works to prevent student homelessness.
Research across multiple universities in Canada estimates that about 5% of its post-secondary students aged 17–24 face forms of homelessness and housing insecurity each year. Canada’s higher education system is different to ours: indigenous students are much more likely to experience homelessness, as are international students whose profile is not the same as in England. And, of course, its student funding system is very different. All the same, do we think we are immune?
What do we know about student homelessness?
There have been some small scale, qualitative studies into student homelessness here, predominantly in London. Patrick Mulrenan, emeritus professor of teaching and learning at London Metropolitan University, and colleagues conducted a focus group and interviews with 16 students at a post-1992 London university in 2017. They concluded that homelessness is significantly underestimated at modern universities.
Joseph Usher, now a PhD student at the University of Manchester, conducted a roundtable with students, charity workers and university staff, supplemented with analysis of support policies of 10 London universities, funded by the London Schools of Economics Homeless Initiative Activity Fund. His report, published in May last year, also concluded that ‘student homelessness is an ongoing and growing issue that remains under researched and under-recognised in higher education policy’. Furthermore, he said ‘post-1992 universities, with more disadvantaged student populations, tend to have fewer resources and offer less comprehensive support’.
Considerably more research into student homelessness has been undertaken in Scotland, notably qualitative work by RSM UK, advised by researchers at Heriot-Watt University. This identified higher and further education students as among the five groups most often cited by interviewees as at risk of ‘hidden’ homelessness. Charity workers said that they supported students who were sofa surfing and living in overcrowded households, and even students sleeping in tents. They found a lack of awareness of available support; some said ‘certain circumstances of homelessness had become normalised, leading some students to not perceive themselves as homeless’.
We saw a spike in students in cities – including Bristol, Manchester and Durham – resorting to sofa surfing, staying in hotels, or finding short-term accommodation through booking platforms at the beginning of the academic years 2020–21 and 2021–22. That had particular causes linked to a surge in undergraduate admissions after the Covid-19 pandemic.
The pressures on students
Of greater concern is the long-term impact of the freeze over many years in student maintenance loans coupled with intensifying cost-of-living pressures, such as rising rents, food and travel costs. These impact all students but we know certain profiles and cohorts will be disproportionately affected.
And, of course, this has coincided with continuing policy emphasis on widening participation among under-represented groups. Evidence shows that risk of homelessness is closely correlated to people who experience financial instability, or adversity in childhood, or who are affected by domestic abuse. Care experienced young people and students who are estranged from birth families are at particular risk, although they are low in number.
So what should universities do? There are some simple steps to take straight away. Universities should review their support policies through a lens of homelessness prevention, remembering that students may not have a clear understanding of what constitutes homelessness. However, the scale of the challenge, and the resources available to address it, vary considerably across the sector. Institutions supporting higher proportions of students from disadvantaged backgrounds may face greater demand for support while having fewer resources to respond. Rent guarantor support for estranged and care experienced students that is provided by some universities directly (for example, Cardiff, UCL, York) or via partnerships (for example, Exeter, Bath) should become more widely available, with consideration given to how institutions can be supported to provide it.
The roles of universities
But until we have a stronger understanding of its causes, patterns and pressure points, and empirical evidence of interventions that can relieve and prevent student homelessness, universities will still be shooting in the dark.
We need robust data to quantify the scale and profiles of student homelessness, and provide a baseline against which future progress can be measured. A cluster of universities, or perhaps an entire mission group such as members of MillionPlus, could add a question about housing stability to the National Student Survey’s optional bank of questions. If institutions won’t act, the National Union of Students should commission an externally conducted survey among a large, representative sample of current university students to quantify and analyse housing precarity.
We also need causal research to test what works and what is cost effective to design out student homelessness from our higher education system. Again, universities ought to take a lead. Alternatively, one of the research councils, other funders or the Office for Students should step up to the plate.
Universities are places of enquiry, custodians of knowledge, promoters of learning. How long must we wait for our higher education sector to answer core questions about student homelessness?
This blog draws on his chapter in the book How to Use Evidence to End Homelessness, a collection of essays by leading thinkers across different sectors about the need to shift from crisis response to prevention in homelessness. Commissioned by the Centre for Homelessness Impact, just published by Bristol University Press.