ABOUT THE DYING HOMELESS PROJECT
OUR MEMORIAL PAGE
At the heart of this project is our memorial page where we remember with love and dignity people who have died whilst homeless. The human cost of the homelessness and housing crisis is far too high. This project aims to remember and honour each and every human behind the stark statistics.
The memorial page holds tributes submitted to remember with love the people who have died whilst homeless in the UK since 2017. We accept submissions to the memorial year round and you can find out more about how to submit to the memorial on our memorial page.
HISTORY OF THE DYING HOMELESS PROJECT
The number of people who are homeless has skyrocketed in the UK, meanwhile spending on support services has been cut. We are in the middle of an inequality crisis. However, until October 2017 nobody collected data on how and when people affected by homelessness were dying.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism started this project which ran from October 2017 – March 2019 and documented that 800 people died whilst homeless in the UK. It made a huge impact and in early 2019, the Bureau began to explore how it would conclude the investigation but continue the work. After some initial discussion, Museum of Homelessness offered to continue the project.
In April 2019, a handover took place. Since that time, we have continued to tell the stories of people who have died, we mark people’s lives and uncover lessons that could be learnt to prevent more deaths in the future. Most of us involved in MoH have lost people dear to us far too early due to homelessness. This is a project that we feel strongly committed to continuing, so that we can honour those lost in our community and fight for change.
OUR RESEARCH
We publish data and research annually highlighting how many people are dying whilst homeless across the UK. In 2021, The Dying Homeless Project recorded 1286 deaths across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland in 2021. This was a 32% increase on the numbers reported in our 2020 study – and a staggering 80% increase over the number we published in 2019. These statistics include people sleeping rough as well as those placed in emergency accommodation and other insecure settings. Each fatality was verified by a freedom of information request, coroners’ report, charity or family member. Our findings for 2023 will be released in October 2024.
You can download our 2020 findings here
You can download our 2021 findings here
You can download our 2022 findings here
In 2021 We also worked with Garden Court North, Inquest, Greater Manchester Law Centre, Ison Harrison and Shelter to publish a short guide to the inquest process for bereaved families.
Below is a piece we made with Victoria Derbyshire’s team for BBC news, broadcast in 2020
BBC news covered our findings
September 2020
GET INVOLVED
Year round, we work with the findings of this project to campaign for change. We are working hard with partners in local government, law and health to prevent further unnecessary deaths. Where necessary, we hold those responsible for premature and preventable deaths to account.
We host regular Death Cafes for the project. These are online spaces where people can come together to support each other if they have been affected by homelessness and death.
We also run the Dying Homeless Project coalition, an informal group of grassroots activists, volunteers, homelessness workers, clinical practitioners (homelessness inclusion health nurses and GPs), artists, journalists, and people who have experience of homelessness. The coalition has formed in late 2020 to push for a national confidential inquiry into homeless deaths.
Please get in touch if you want to join the coalition and/or be put on our mailing list. You can email our coordinator Gill Taylor with any questions (gill@museumofhomelessness.org).