WWL5.2
Reduced Homelessness
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Reduced Homelessness
Homelessness, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. In the UK, The Housing Act 1996 defines a person as homeless if they either:
- have no accommodation available to occupy
- are at risk of violence or domestic abuse
- have accommodation but it is not reasonable for them to continue to occupy it
- have accommodation but cannot secure entry to it
- have no legal right to occupy their accommodation
- live in a mobile home or houseboat but have no place to put it or live in it
Chapter 6 of the Homelessness Code of Guidance covers the definitions of homelessness and threatened homelessness.
According to Crisis UK, there are different types of homelessness recognised in the UK:
- Rough sleeping
- In temporary accommodation
- Hidden homelessness
- Statutory homelessness
Reducing homelessness could include changing the conditions for anyone under any of the above circumstances.
Key Value
A fiscal, economic and wellbeing value of £7,500
Monetised fiscal, economic and wellbeing value of reduced homelessness per person for one year in 2023 prices.
This value is based on the report “Assessing the costs and benefits of Crisis’ plan to end homelessness” by Crisis commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (“PwC”).
Crisis has defined what ending homelessness would mean in terms of five objectives. Objectives 1 to 3 relate to people defined as core homeless, whereas Objectives 4 and 5 relate to wider homelessness.
- Objective 1: No one sleeping rough
- Objective 2: No one forced to live in transient or dangerous accommodation, such as tents, squats, or non-residential buildings
- Objective 3: No one living in emergency accommodation
- Objective 4: No one becoming homeless as a result of leaving a state institution, such as prison or the care system
- Objective 5: Everyone at immediate risk of homelessness receives the help they need to prevent it from happening
For each objective, Crisis recommends a different combination of interventions (solutions) designed to achieve it. Table 2 of the report describes each solution and explains which objectives it is expected to contribute to. The report presents the total discounted benefit of each solution for each objective at 2017 prices, or as an average total benefit per person supported between 2018 and 2041.
To make the results comparable, we divided the total discounted benefit by 24 to calculate the yearly benefit and then adjusted the values to 2023 prices.
At the end of each chapter, they summarise how the benefits are distributed between four different categories of benefits that potentially arise from ending homelessness:
− Fiscal: Avoided costs to local authorities through reduced use of homelessness services (e.g. reduced need for spending on temporary accommodation and other housing and support-based services for homeless people funded by local authorities)
− Fiscal: Avoided costs to the Exchequer through reduced use of public services such as NHS or criminal justice services
− Economic: Increased earnings from increasing the number of people able and willing to work
− Social (Wellbeing): Improved wellbeing because of homeless people obtaining secure housing.
Based on the distribution of the benefit types, we calculated the fiscal, economic and social value for reduced homelessness.
The table below shows the fiscal, economic and social value for each objective and solution type for Great Britain. The last row of the table includes the headline value (average of all) reduced homelessness which is £7,500 per person per year in 2023 prices for Great Britain. Table 2 of the report describes each solution and explains which objectives it is expected to contribute to.
| Objective | Solution | Total value (rounded) | Fiscal | Economic | Social (Wellbeing) |
| Objective 1: No one sleeping rough
|
Housing First solution | £18,000 | £7,400 | £1,400 | £9,200 |
| Long term supported accommodation solution | £26,900 | £11,000 | £2,100 | £13,700 | |
| Low to medium support solution: housing access and floating support | £900 | £400 | £100 | £500 | |
| Objective 2: No one forced to live in transient or dangerous accommodation such as tents, squats and non-residential buildings
|
Housing First solution | £19,200 | £11,900 | £2,300 | £5,000 |
| Long term supported accommodation solution | £19,500 | £12,100 | £2,300 | £5,100 | |
| Critical Time Interventions solution (through Housing Options) | £4,100 | £2,600 | £500 | £1,100 | |
| Low to medium support solution: housing access and floating support (through Housing Options) | £700 | £400 | £100 | £200 | |
| Objective 3: No one living in emergency accommodation
|
Housing First solution | £18,000 | £11,300 | £2,200 | £4,500 |
| Long term supported accommodation solution | £20,000 | £12,600 | £2,400 | £5,000 | |
| Critical Time Interventions solution | £4,200 | £2,600 | £500 | £1,000 | |
| Low to medium support solution: housing access and floating support | £600 | £400 | £100 | £200 | |
| Supported accommodation solution for young people in Objective 3 | £6,700 | £4,200 | £800 | £1,700 | |
| “Supported accommodation solution for victims of domestic violence in Objective 3” | £2,500 | £1,600 | £300 | £600 | |
| Objective 4: No one homeless as a result of leaving a state institution such as prison or the care system
|
Critical Time Interventions solution (through Housing Options) | £5,800 | £3,600 | £600 | £1,600 |
| Low to medium support solution: housing access and floating support (through Housing Options) | £700 | £400 | £100 | £200 | |
| Floating support solution (through Housing Options) | £700 | £400 | £100 | £200 | |
| Housing Options for people who move out of Objective 4 immediately | £200 | £100 | £0 | £100 | |
| Objective 5: Everyone at immediate risk of homelessness gets the help they need that prevents it happening
|
Low to medium support solution: housing access and floating support (through Housing Options) | £700 | £400 | £100 | £200 |
| Floating support solution (through Housing Options) | £700 | £400 | £100 | £200 | |
| Housing Options for people who move out of Objective 5 immediately | £200 | £100 | £0 | £100 | |
| Headline value | Average of all objectives and solutions | £7,500 | £4,200 | £800 | £2,500 |
Local Needs Analysis Data Source
Before using this MeasureUp value, we encourage you to assess the local need in relation to the activity or outcome.
Here is the most useful initial data source for assessing local need in relation to this value.
Accredited official statistics by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government provide information on statutory homelessness applications, duties, and outcomes for local authorities in England.Detailed local authority level tables: January to March 2025 . Published quarterly and at local authority level.
Bronze
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Multiply the number of people you support to move out of homelessness for a full year by £7500.
If you are unable to capture information about the objective and the solution, because this is a plan for a future project, then you can use this value as a proxy for reduced homelessness.
Here is an example:
You support 20 people to move from some form of homelessness into some form of being housed. You anticipate 13 of the people will be able to escape from homelessness for the whole year. (It’s important to be realistic about how many of your target group will reach the desired outcome; it’s unlikely all of them will, e.g. 13/20 = 0.65.) Therefore, you estimate 13*£7,500 = £97,500 monetised value from the benefit of reduced homelessness.
Silver
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Consider realistically what activities you will be doing that align to the different solution types that the values relate to. Therefore, you can calculate a more accurate value of the benefits of reduced homelessness.
For each objective, Crisis recommends a different combination of interventions (solutions) designed to achieve it. Table 2 of the report describes each solution and explains which objectives it is expected to contribute to.
The table under the key value text shows the fiscal, economic and social value for each objective and solution type for Great Britain.
Here is an example:
You support 20 people to move out of homelessness through supporting people out of sleeping rough for one year. This aligns to the objective “No one sleeping rough”. You anticipate
- 3 of the people will be able to rapidly access a stable home and enable to begin to address other support needs through coordinated wraparound support and case management. (Housing First solution)
- 4 of the people will be able to access on-site intensive support for people needing specialist care and (Long term supported accommodation solution )
- 6 of the people will be able to access social and private rented sector accommodation through a social lettings agency and National Private Rented Access Scheme with a Guaranteed Deposit Scheme. (Low to medium support solution: housing access and floating support)
It’s important to be realistic about how many of your target group will reach the desired outcome. Therefore, you estimate
(3* £18,000) + (4* £26,900) + (6* £900) = £167,000 monetised value from the benefit of reduced homelessness.
The values are provided for Great Britain as a whole, so covering Scotland, Wales, and England collectively, but the report also includes a breakdown of the benefits , by English region and nation:
- Greater London
- North
- Midlands
- South
- Wales
- Scotland
More broadly we recommend starting recording demographic factors about the beneficiaries of support as well (e.g. protected characteristics like gender, age, ethnicity/race, disability status, etc) and any other factors about the affected people that may be important to understand in relation to their experience of homeslessness. Other factors that specifically impact on homelessness risk include:
- being a prison leaver,
- care leaver,
- having been in the army,
- having experienced domestic abuse,
- relationship breaking down,
- losing a job,
- mental or physical health problems, or
- substance misuse
Some of these factors are particularly important in relation to the Labour Government 5 missions, and included in the Central Government Social Value Model 2025.
Gold
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
At Gold level you are looking to build on your silver estimations by engaging with the person or people affected.
You can ask the following questions to determine the housing situation for the stakeholders. Questions are adapted from the Crisis homelessness charity customer survey.
Do you have any of the following issues?
- At risk of eviction
- Have been evicted
- Unable to remain in property for other reasons
- Will be leaving a state institution with no accommodation available (e.g. hospital, prison, or Asylum Support Accommodation)
- Have left a state institution with no accommodation (e.g. hospital, prison or Asylum Support Accommodation)
- Street homeless / Rough sleeping
What is your accommodation status for your recent house? (Select one only)
- Living in a property you own
- Living in own Housing Association property
- Living in own council property
- Living in a refuge
- Living in a private rented property (on my own)
- Living in a private rented property (shared)
- Living in someone else’s Council/Housing Association property
- Temporarily living with friends/family
- Lodging (not with family or friends)
- Supported housing or supported accommodation
- Living in a temporary accommodation e.g. hostel or B&B
- Squatting
- Drug or Alcohol Rehab Unit
- Emergency Shelter e.g Night Shelter, Hostels
- Other
For more information on stakeholder engagement please visit Gold: Surveys and measurements of actual results.
Support in developing your Gold survey approach is available through the Measure Up partners, so please do reach out to Impact, State of Life or PRD.
Gold+
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
At the Gold+ level, you are building on your Gold value calculation by assessing the value against the counterfactual, or ‘what would have happened anyway’.
To do this you should identify a control group suitable to assess in line with your intervention, in order to more accurately attribute any changes to your intervention.
You could also consider any other discount or causality elements linked to your job creation activity.
Support in developing your Gold+ counterfactual, causality and discount approach is available through the Measure Up partners, so please do reach out to Impact, State of Life or PRD.
| Value Type: | Outcome |
What's this?
This is the type of value. Some values are outcomes, which means many different interventions might lead to them, others are specific interventions that have a set value due to a mix of outcomes of varying amounts they may create. |
|---|---|---|
| UN SDG Categories: |
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What's this?
The UN Sustainable Development Goals are global goals adopted in 2015 for all signed up nations to achieve for us to have a sustainable global future by 2030. There are 17 Goals that address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. The Goals are all interconnected, and in order to leave no one behind, it is important that we achieve them all by 2030. |
| 2020 Social Value Models: |
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What's this?
PPN 06/20 Taking account of social value in the award of central government contracts introduced the Central Government Social Value Model in 2020 which all Central Government contracting authorities must use in their in scope procurements. It consists of 5 themes, 8 policy outcomes, and 24 Model Award Criteria which outline key priority areas to achieve more social value. |
| 2025 Social Value Models: |
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What's this?
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Evidence
Measure Up focuses on empowering you to numerically measure the impact you’re having. We recommend that numeric reports are backed up with stories and other types of evidence to help illustrate, in human terms, the impact that’s being made on individuals.
We recommend seeking consent from participants in your intervention to collect and tell their story. This should include a little background on the participant, a summing up of life before the intervention, the human impact of the intervention, and the longer term (if known) impact on the person’s life outside of, and after, the intervention.
Providing photographs, audio recordings, video interviews or even artefacts from the intervention (for example, writing, paintings, music from creative interventions) can add more to the story, and convey the emotional impact of interventions more directly.
In some cases it’s appropriate to anonymise or abbreviate the personal information of case study participants. No story should be published or shared without the recorded consent of the individual(s) it concerns. Individuals continue to own the rights to their stories and if they request you stop sharing the story or making it available online you should do so promptly and without need for justification.
Feedback
Measure Up is an open, collaborative and transparent. If you have any suggestions or feedback on our pragmatic, recommended approach to measuring and valuing social value, including wellbeing, economic, and fiscal impact, and effects on our environment, please get in touch so we can share and discuss this at our next Advisory Group meeting.
More help
We want to empower anyone to perform and improve their impact measurement – without needing a degree in economics.
If you need any more help, or just someone to do the legwork for you we can help signpost you to software, training and consultancy to help you get to grips with the impact you’re having and value you are creating.
