Plans to end rough sleeping must focus on health exclusion and specialist services

Ending rough sleeping was among Andy Burnham’s first pledges as prime minister. 1 His wider “housing first” philosophy, which defines a good home as being the foundation for health and a sustainable health system is fundamental to his strategy for making much needed improvements to health and homelessness prevention. The June 2026 repeal of the 200 year old Vagrancy Act, which ends the criminalisation of people sleeping rough, is also an important step away from a system that eroded trust and drove people further away from support services.2However, the national drive to get everyone off the streets by Christmas must be viewed as a short term fix only.3 The plan relies on communal night shelters—a solution that the sector has worked hard to move away from, as these shelters are less effective than self-contained accommodation for supporting vulnerable people.To improve people’s health and wellbeing, we must implement sustainable solutions and…