Home - No less will do: Homeless people’s access to the Private Rented Sector

This study was conducted by the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) at Sheffield Hallam University. It was commissioned by Crisis in October 2015 to explore the experiences of homeless people and those at risk of homelessness who try to meet their housing needs in the private rented sector. In particular, the study sought to understand how accessible the private rented sector is to homeless people, and identify any barriers hindering their efforts to secure accommodation in this sector.

The research was conducted between October 2015 and January 2016 and comprised: a postal and online survey of 949 Landlords with properties in England (mostly) and Scotland; a face-to-face survey of 103 people using homelessness services in England and Scotland; and a survey of 58 local authority officers in England. In addition, qualitative insights were obtained through face-to-face and telephone interviews with stakeholders (seven in total, including landlords, landlord representative organisations, housing advisors and PRS access scheme staff) and 11 interviews with homelessness service users who had recently sought private rented accommodation.

Although the private rented sector has expanded significantly in recent years, access to the sector remains severely restricted for homeless people. The private landlords surveyed were generally reluctant to rent to people in receipt of Housing Benefit, and even more reluctant to rent to people they know to be homeless.

Only 20 per cent of landlords indicated willingness to rent to homeless people. A proportion of these would only do so through a private sector leasing arrangement, leaving just 14 per cent with property available to homeless people on the open market. The local authority officers surveyed agreed that it had become more difficult for single homeless people to access the private rented sector in the past five years. Landlord reluctance to rent to homeless people and benefit claimants was reflected in the experiences of the homelessness service users surveyed, more than two thirds of whom had encountered landlords unwilling to rent to people in receipt of HB or people who were homeless. 

Publication Date: 
2016