No one should leave prison homeless: Why housing matters after release

Simon Dixon, Nacro’s Head of Policy and Public Affairs, explains why having a safe place to live is one of the most important factors in helping people rebuild their lives after prison, and why ending homelessness on release must be a priority.

If you want to give someone a good chance at building a positive future when they’re released from prison, one of the best things you can do is make sure they have a roof over their head. 

At Nacro, we see in our services every day how a safe home isn’t just a place to sleep. It helps sets the foundations for what can come next. Making sure people have somewhere to call home is crucial to rebuilding relationships, addressing health needs, and regaining financial stability. Without this, people are being set up to fail.

What are the causes of rough sleeping on release?

Homelessness on release has many causes. Some people are admitted to prison from rough sleeping, while many others will lose access to their home while they are in custody. In some cases, people will have somewhere to return to on paper, but in reality it won’t be safe for them to do so. In all of these cases, being released onto the street, or sofa-surfing, puts people experiencing homelessness at risk. 

Being released from prison into homelessness can have a devastating impact on someone trying to rebuild their life.

What are the risks if do we not provide suitable housing for people leaving prison?

Someone who doesn’t have anywhere to stay on their first night out is more than twice as likely to reoffend within a year as someone who has accommodation. Last year, there were more than 12,000 recalls citing ‘failure to reside’ which is often driven by someone becoming homeless. And, someone released homeless is at twice the risk of dying within two weeks of release as someone who has accommodation on release.

Despite this, there are 300 people released from prison homeless every week.  

This now accounts for 16% of all prison releases – up from only 10% as recently as 2021/22. If we had maintained this level, then there would have been almost 6,000 fewer releases into homelessness than we saw in reality.

How can we solve the problem?

The failure to address this issue over years is letting down people in the justice system, and putting the public at risk. Reducing prison homelessness will protect the people leaving prison, but also cut crime numbers by reducing reoffending. 

Given this, the Government’s commitment to halve the number of people leaving prison homeless by 2029 – and eventually eliminate it altogether – is welcome. If they don’t achieve this, then the Prime Minister has no chance of meeting his commitment to end rough sleeping.

Solving this doesn’t mean reinventing the wheel. Since 2019, the Ministry of Justice has significantly expanded probation accommodation, ensuring that thousands of  people a year have somewhere to stay when they are released. To build on these and create a comprehensive preventative service, there needs to be better working across Government.

At the moment, the first port of call for someone who is at risk of homelessness is their local council – or the council they have the closest connection with. Even with the best pre-release planning, getting a decision on this can take weeks, impacting on people’s ability to plan for their life on the outside. Until they have an address, they can’t arrange GP registration or benefits applications – all things which need to be in place on day one wherever possible.

The Government has committed an additional £350 million a year to end rough sleeping. If none of this money is spent on providing stable accommodation for people who would otherwise leave prison homeless, then they will not meet their ambition. This would be nothing short of a failure, given the impact on the people released to the street and their communities.

Written by Simon Dixon, Nacro’s Head of Policy and Public Affairs