Prisoners get a specific mention, particularly prolific offenders who have been in and out of prison.
But the backdrop is a prison system that is bursting at the seams.
More than 70,000 prisoners have been released from their sentences since 2024 and another 4,500 are scheduled to be released early by July next year after serving a third of their sentence.
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In the current scenario, it is inevitable that some will end up on the streets.
“It’s the same problem that the field has talked about for years. It’s on steroids now,” said Mike Trace, CEO of The Forward Trust, a social justice charity that supports people to recover from addiction or leave behind crime. “Lots of people whizzing in and out of prison quickly. And the accommodation and care packages are just not in place for most of them when they come out on the early release scheme.
“MOJ have got to take the rehabilitation aspect of this process seriously – and have a serious answer to the question of what’s the accommodation and treatment these guys are going to get the day they walk out of prison?”
Prisons and rough sleeping are inextricably linked.
Being released from prison without a suitable place to stay, the right support or an alternative to crime can often trap people in a vicious circle between the streets and a prison cell.
In fact, previous Big Issue reporting has highlighted how some people have even committed crimes or asked to be jailed in court in order to escape the streets.
Nacro, a charity helping prison leavers find secure housing, found people who have spent time in prison are 40 times more likely to experience rough sleeping than those who are not.
The charity’s analysis of the most recent official rough sleeping snapshot in autumn 2025 found half of the 4,793 people counted on the streets had been in prison in the past. That included two out of five women with 279 of the 733 counted previously spending time inside. As Big Issue reported last week: that number is likely far higher.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of Nacro, said: “There is still a major failure to support prison leavers, particularly women, at one of the most vulnerable moments in their lives.
“Our experience at Nacro shows us that safe housing is one of the foundation stones of rehabilitation and therefore key to breaking the cycle of homelessness and reoffending.”
When prisoners are released without anywhere to live, some may end up living in Ministry of Justice’s Community Accommodation Service (CAS), providing up to 12 weeks’ basic accommodation.
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They will deal with the Probation Service; some might need support for drug or alcohol addiction.
But, unsurprisingly in housing crisis Britain, accommodation is in short supply, according to recent reports.
Burnham has spoken of the need for prevention to reduce sky-high levels of homelessness and end rough sleeping.
That is a distant ambition, according to Trace. The ‘scramble’ means people with high dependency are at risk of being placed in accommodation with low threshold support, increasing the likelihood of reoffending.
“I’ve generally commended the scrambling that the probation service and services like ours have done,” he said. “The scrambling has been pretty good in that just a few weeks ago we didn’t know who was coming out on what day. I think those teams have done pretty well with the practical challenge.
“But the bottom line, most of those packages are out of kilter with the level of need of the people going into them.”
What can be done
The Ministry of Justice said it is “pulling every lever to fix” the problem. It said it was building 14,000 new prison places and working with councils and charities to halve prison leaver homelessness by 2029. That ambition is backed £700m investment in probation and community services.
Both Nacro and Forward Trust have called for more quality support and accommodation on the day of release for people being leaving prison.
Nacro has also urged ministers to provide more support to enable prison leavers to return to their family home where it is safe while Forward Trust has called for the prisoners with addiction issues to be given appropriate accommodation and support.
For women, in particular, Nacro believes that the Housing First model could make a difference. Housing First, which is championed by Burnham, offers intensive wraparound support alongside a home. A women-specific service could have a big impact on reoffending and homelessness, the charity said.
The merits of Housing First are referenced in the government’s own rough sleeping programme guidance.
It cites Islington Council’s Housing First officer whose role includes meeting individuals released at the gate to take a person to accommodation provided by the council and help navigate other public services, such as medical and Jobcentre appointments.
But the experts are clear that this is a problem that can only be solved with dedicated ring-fenced funding.
The rough sleeping programme has given local authorities £442 million of funding over three years. But, fitting with Burnham’s devolution agenda, it is up to councils how they spend the money to tailor to the needs in their local area.
In reality, that could see prisoners at the back of the queue.
It’s a similar issue in Westminster.
While the Ministry of Justice is responsible for the process of releasing prisoners and offender management, it’s other government departments that are responsible for preventing reoffending.
The Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government may all have a part to play with work, benefits and support for addiction.
Without a joined-up approach, prison leavers can end up back in prison or on the streets.
“If Andy Burnham wants to end homelessness then one of the things they could have done as part of the package is say: “Here’s £50million for released prisoners and it’s badged and they say: “Right, MOJ, get together with local authorities, Department of Health and Social Care and spend that extra £50m on the problem of released prisoners. The immediate payback in terms of reduced reoffending and licence breaches is worth it”, said Trace.
“But what they’ve done is not targeted. They’ve just sent the money to local authorities and said: do stuff around homelessness. MOJ is always at the back of the queue for that, because if you’re a local authority trying to stretch your resources, your priority isn’t prison capacity issues.”
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