Homeless and dying of coronavirus

Every death “a tragedy”, with warnings number may be underestimate

AT least homeless people have died from coronavirus so far - similar to the numbers dying from alcohol misuse and suicide.

Over the past five years, on average of 13 homeless people died every three months from alcohol-specific causes, and 16 died from suicide.

All of the coronavirus-related deaths identified were in England, with none in Wales - however, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) warned the true number could be higher.

The figures cover deaths registered between March 26 and June 26, and don’t include those who died with the virus but hadn’t been identified as being homeless, suggesting the figure may be an underestimate.

The ONS doesn’t provide details of the deaths to prevent people from being identified due to the low numbers.

However, the report says that most of the confirmed deaths involving Covid-19 were men, and the average age at death for those men was 58 years.

That was considerably lower than the average age of death involving coronavirus in the general population (79 years for men and 82 years for women).

Jon Sparkes, chief executive of Crisis, said: “Every one of these deaths is a tragedy - behind these figures are individuals, each with families, hopes and dreams.

“When the outbreak started, it was a stark reminder of the risk people who are homeless face from the virus – with no access to a place to self-isolate nor, in some cases, basic sanitation.

“The situation could have been much worse had the government, local councils and charities not worked to quickly move many people sleeping rough and in night shelters into hotels, providing safe, emergency accommodation.

“This undoubtedly saved lives. We must now build on this. We need emergency homelessness legislation to guarantee everyone experiencing homelessness has the security of a safe and settled home.

“Without this, people risk being forced back on our streets or into crowded shelters, with the danger posed by the virus still very real.”

Almost 15,000 rough sleepers have been housed in hotels or emergency accommodations under the “Everyone In” scheme launched at the beginning of the lockdown.

Local authorities in the UK received a £3.2m pot of funding from the central government to house rough sleepers.

At the end of June, the Government announced a further £105m to support rough sleepers and those at risk of homelessness into tenancies of their own.