Action plan approved for tackling homelessness in Sheffield
An updated action plan has been approved for preventing homelessness and rough sleeping in Sheffield.
A meeting of Sheffield Council’s Housing Policy Committee approved a revised version of the Homelessness Prevention and Rough Sleeping Strategy Action Plan 2025-2028. It sets out bold priorities for the year ahead.
During the 2024/2025 period, the number of households presenting as homeless in Sheffield dropped by 13.6 per cent.
The council said this reflected the impact of early intervention and collaborative working not just within Sheffield City Council, but alongside all partners working to prevent homelessness in Sheffield.
There has been success with prevention work. Some 35.8 per cent of households seen at the prevention stage were successfully supported to avoid homelessness - an improvement on the previous year. Of those prevented from becoming homeless, 76.9 per cent secured new housing, while 23.1 per cent remained in their existing homes.
But one of the biggest overspends for Sheffield City Council remains the use of emergency and temporary accommodation for people who require immediate support. However, particularly when it comes to using expensive B&B placements there has been improvement. Temporary accommodation placements fell by eight per cent overall, and the number of families in B&Bs dropped by 65 per cent.
The coucil said it continues to respond to people that are rough sleeping, and identify responses to emerging trends. Although there is increased demand, the number of those experiencing long-term rough sleeping reduced from 59 per cent to 36 per cent of all cases, with Sheffield outperforming regional and national averages.
The council said there are also emerging challenges too including evictions from Home Office accommodation and long-term rough sleeping, which peaked earlier this year.
Again, none of this would be possible without collaborating with the wider rough sleeping services, and partners in Sheffield. Initiatives such as the Prison, Probation and Housing Group and Domestic Abuse Housing Accreditation have driven service improvements and earned national recognition.
The Homelessness Prevention Forum has grown in popularity, fostering collaboration across sectors and amplifying the voices of those with lived experience to help shape support for those who need it.
However, homelessness remains a complex and persistent issue, with the top causes continuing to be:
- Eviction by family or friends
- Domestic abuse
- Loss of private rented housing
There remains a continued demand for homelessness services and despite the progress made in the area so far there remains an ongoing reliance on B&Bs for emergency accommodation.
Work also continues on expanding housing options and workforce support.
Looking ahead at the third year of the Homelessness Prevention and Rough Sleeping Strategy and revised Action Plan, the Council’s focus alongside our partners will be:
- Ending B&B use for families by the end of 2025/26, and ending that reliance for all households by the end of 2026/27
- Adding 100 new temporary accommodation units and better utilising vacant properties to house those in emergency need
- Expanding prevention efforts, including earlier access to the right advice and support
- Growing private rented options, aiming for 600 tenancies to have been secured for people by 2028
- Enhancing workforce development, including trauma-informed training to better equip staff to support those dealing with ongoing and previous difficult situations
- Commissioning of supported housing to ensure its high impact and value alongside preparing for new regulatory duties
- Strengthening multi-agency responses for people rough sleeping, with multiple support needs
The strategy being approved comes off the back of the news of Sheffield receiving £1.5m of additional government funding to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping across the city.
The Council will be distributing £841,736 in 2025-2026, this is one-off grant funding from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to partners to support the response to homelessness. Some £261,736 of that will be allocated to the Voluntary, Community, Care and Faith Sector to support innovative homelessness prevention and rough sleeping initiatives.
Councillor Douglas Johnson, Chair of the Housing Policy Committee, said: “This updated action plan reflects Sheffield’s commitment to preventing homelessness through early intervention, partnership working and inclusive services.
“Unfortunately, the demand for homelessness assistance in Sheffield remains high.
“We’re proud of the progress made in areas such as prevention measures and in reducing reliance on emergency accommodation, which we understand is not always the right environment for people.
“But we can’t just sit back and be pleased with what has been done. More needs to be achieved and further improvements made. This updated action plan shows we will work with all our partners in this area to do just that.”
Last year, a34-year-old homeless woman, known online as Sheffield Keeley, tragically died on the same day as she was offered a place to live, an inquest heard.
She passed away just hours after Sheffield Council had shown Keeley around a home found for her.
Keeley Thornton was found unresponsive on Arundel Gate in Sheffield city centre on January 14, 2025 and later died at Northern General Hospital.
Known online as “Sheffield Keeley”, she had become well-known for dancing and singing in TikTok videos filmed by members of the public before her death.
In the aftermath of Keeley’s tragic death, a street homelessness organisation said she had been exploited by those who paid her to dance and swim in the Barker’s Pool fountains “like a performing clown” when she had been drinking.
They would then post their videos on TikTok.