To tackle youth homelessness, we need to know the full extent of this issue, with specific data on how many young people are homeless or at risk of homelessness and where it is more likely to occur.
Centrepoint’s Youth Homelessness Databank pulls together data from the local authority level in England to provide a full picture of youth homelessness in the country.
123,934 young people were homeless or at risk of homelessness in the UK last year.
Only 65% of young people in England who reached out to their local authority for support were assessed.
1 in 60 young people in the UK were estimated to be facing homelessness in 2024-2025.
Centrepoint’s Youth Homelessness Databank is an annual report which looks into the number of 16–24-year-olds in the UK experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
This year’s report provides quantitative and qualitative data insights into youth homelessness in the UK in 2024-25. A focus is placed on the drivers of youth homelessness this year, particularly on family breakdown, domestic abuse and refugee and asylum policy, to better explain the underlying factors behind the trends we are seeing in the sector.
To advocate for young people experiencing homelessness and ultimately end it, we must understand the extent, distribution, and makeup of the youth homelessness population, as well as what happens to young people when they approach their local authorities for help. This report’s aim is to provide open and easily accessible data on youth homelessness in order to assess the health of England’s homelessness system and suggest improvements to better serve young people.
Across the UK, we estimate that 123,934 young people aged 16-24 faced or were at risk of homelessness between April 2024 and March 2025. This represents a six per cent increase compared to the previous financial year.
This data is taken from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), and represents the leading causes of youth homelessness in England.
As is the case with previous years, family or friends no longer willing or able to accommodate remains the most prevalent reason cited for youth homelessness.
It is worth noting that reasons for homelessness can work in tandem, even though they are reported as single causes.
"Friends or family no longer being willing to accommodate” is the lead cause of youth homelessness reported by the MHCLG with a significant share of these cases being driven by family breakdown.
Centrepoint’s 2025 report ‘Waiting for the Next Blowup: Family Breakdown and Youth Homelessness’ shows that family conflict is far more likely to escalate into homelessness when households face challenges like mental health problems, financial strain, overcrowding, or domestic abuse. The report also conducted a survey and found that homeless young people feel significantly less emotionally supported at home, yet only one in four ever received help to address family conflict.
In addition to this, frontline services spoken to as part of Databank reported rising family breakdown cases linked to the cost-of-living crisis and increased family poverty. LGBTQ+ young people are particularly affected by family conflict around identity, with interviews pointing to family rejection being one of the most immediate and severe drivers of homelessness for the community.
Domestic abuse is the second most common cited cause of youth homelessness, accounting for around 11% of young people receiving prevention or relief duties in 2024–25, and can include physical, emotional, financial, or “honour-based” harm. Even when not listed as the main reason, half of young people with lived experience of homelessness reported past abuse at home in our family breakdown survey, suggesting its role is often hidden due to stigma or its overlap with family breakdown.
The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 expanded access to housing support by granting all survivors priority need and removing local connection tests, yet young people still face gatekeeping, high evidence thresholds, and misunderstandings from local authorities.
Limited awareness of young people’s needs, especially for LGBTQ+ and migrant young people, further limit access to safe housing; and even when support is provided, placements can be inappropriate or retraumatising. Frontline services stressed the need for trauma-informed practice and better recognition of young people’s specific safety and accommodation needs.
Databank figures include breakdown by gender, showing gender disparities amongst the different stages of getting housing support through the Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA). Breaking down Databank results by gender, women are more represented than men in most stages of the HRA pathway, especially those young people who receive prevention duty (see figure below). This finding corroborates with last year’s Databank and generally reflects that women are more likely to seek prevention support than men are.
Around 6% of young people receiving prevention or relief duty in 2024–25 became homeless following a Home Office eviction, and Databank figures show rising homelessness among non-EEA nationals (see figure below).
Refugees who have been issued evictions from the Home Office face a unique housing pathway, with most becoming homeless after their 28-day move on period ends, as they typically lack savings, employment history, and sufficient time to secure income (through employment or Universal Credit) or accommodation. Although a temporary 56-day move on extension between December 2024 and August 2025 eased pressures, it was limited in duration and eligibility, leaving many young adult refugees (especially those not previously in care) struggling to access statutory housing.
Barriers are even more severe for those over 18 who are not considered priority need, contributing to a growing number facing destitution and rough sleeping. Harry’s story below illustrates these challenges, showing how abrupt eviction from asylum accommodation led to rough sleeping before Centrepoint support gained him access to safer accommodation and steps toward independence.
Harry, 21, arrived in the UK in early 2025 after fleeing Sudan and was initially placed in a Home Office hotel while his asylum claim was processed. Although he received refugee status quickly, he was soon evicted from the hotel, leaving him with no choice but to rough sleep, often staying overnight in parks and moving between different bedding sites to stay safe.
After several weeks, Harry contacted the Centrepoint Helpline, who referred him to one of Centrepoint’s Rough Sleeper homes, where he was able to share his experiences and receive support with medical care and basic essentials such as winter clothing.
With the help of the support team, he also enrolled in college to study ESOL (English for Speakers of Another Language), giving him the opportunity to gain the qualifications he needed to move towards independence.
As a result of our findings this year, we are advocating for the following improvements to the availability of data on youth homelessness and the provision of housing for young people.
The methodology used to estimate missing data for data collected from English local authorities has changed this year. Previously, missing values were calculated using regional (average) rates of youth homelessness.
This year, missing values were calculated by looking at the median rate of youth homelessness for the region. This was then multiplied by the local authority’s young person population (16-24 age group) using the ONS 2024 mid-year population estimate.
This methodology change allows us to paint an even more nuanced picture of youth homelessness in the various local authorities across England.
To allow for comparisons, we have applied the new methodology to last year’s dataset which has resulted in some changes to the figures published for the 2023-24 financial year.
For more information on this methodological change, please refer to the technical appendix of the 2024-25 Databank report.
The Youth Homelessness Databank data is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This license allows you to distribute, remix, tweak and build upon our work, as long as Centrepoint and the Youth Homelessness Databank are credited for the original creation. If you have any questions about the data, email us at YHDatabank@centrepoint.org.
We create, host, administer and maintain the Youth Homelessness Databank in compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. All data on this site is aggregated and values under 5 have been suppressed to prevent identification.
If you would like further information please contact the Centrepoint policy team: YHDatabank@centrepoint.org.
