Lost property: tackling homelessness in the UK

Much homelessness need never occur in the first place. Long-term action by charities to address underlying problems such as substance misuse and child abuse helps to reduce the pool of people acutely vulnerable to housing breakdown. More targeted responses—giving advice on housing, for example, or working with groups at particular risk (such as prison leavers)—are relatively well evidenced, and could be extended and replicated.