NACCOM’s annual briefing provides evidence about housing support within a charity network. It should be read as that network’s experience, rather than a count of everyone experiencing homelessness in the UK.
For April 2024 to March 2025, the network reports accommodating 4,434 people, including 2,008 people with refugee status. The refugee-status figure was 3% higher than 2023/24 and 106% higher than 2022/23. Those comparisons describe different time intervals and should be labelled separately.
The briefing also records 829 people who were rough sleeping when they accessed services, among those with information about their previous living arrangements. It says members were approached by at least 3,450 people they could not accommodate, while fewer than a quarter of respondents consistently collected unmet-need data.
What the figures can tell readers
An accommodation count describes people supported by the reporting network. It does not establish the total population needing housing or show that every person outside the network received no help elsewhere. Equally, incomplete information about unmet need should not be interpreted as evidence that the need is small.
When comparing two releases, check whether the organisation, reporting period and measure are the same. The number accommodated, the number approaching a service and the number sleeping rough at first contact answer different questions. Adding them together can double-count people or combine incompatible categories.
Keep policy and measurement separate
A report can present findings and also argue for policy change. When using it in a property or housing discussion, distinguish recorded figures from the organisation’s interpretation and recommendations. The data period here ends in March 2025; it is not a measurement of the present winter or proof of the effect of a later rule change.
For organisations working on housing access, the practical follow-up is to understand the pathway between referral and a settled arrangement. Ask which service is responsible for the next step and what information is missing when an outcome is unknown. A clear referral record can support that discussion without turning a network statistic into a prediction about an individual.
Read the briefing with its limits
The value of the research is its view from frontline charities and its explicit recognition of data gaps. Preserve both when repeating the figures: the scale reported by members and the boundary of what their records can demonstrate.
Source: NACCOM, Understanding destitution and homelessness in the asylum and immigration system, 2024/2025 executive summary. Checked 8 November 2026.