Prison releases fuel rough sleeping crisis
Gary Teper, managing director of The Housing Network, has written to the Guardian to challenge the credibility of pledges to end rough sleeping while prisons continue to release people directly onto the streets. He highlights that in 2024-25, around 1,000 people a month left prison in England and Wales homeless and subsequently slept rough.
Cycle of homelessness and reoffending
Teper explains that homelessness drives reoffending, which leads back to custody, and release again feeds the street. He states: "No government can credibly promise to end rough sleeping while one public institution keeps releasing people straight into it." His organization runs accommodation for prison leavers under the Ministry of Justice's transitional community accommodation service tier 3 (Cas3) scheme, housing more than 1,400 ex-offenders a night.
Support beyond a bed
According to Teper, a bed alone is insufficient. "Many people leaving custody need housing alongside trauma-informed support, life skills and help to sustain a tenancy. Give them that continuity and the cycle can be broken. Without it, homelessness becomes a revolving door." He references Andy Burnham's 2017 goal to end rough sleeping in Greater Manchester, noting that the same challenge persists because the system continues to produce homelessness upstream.
Funding misalignment
Teper criticizes the £340 million allocated to street-level homelessness interventions, arguing it will not fix the pipeline that starts at the prison gate. He concludes: "Until the government treats prison release as homelessness prevention, not homelessness management, the promise will stay a promise."
