There are many types of homelessness, from those living in temporary accommodation to rough sleeping, and statistics suggest that year on year homelessness has been on the rise. But what is the real experience of sleeping rough, and what can the average person do to help? Matteo D’Alesio speaks to Edward, an unhoused man in Nottingham, and Dave Newmarch, Framework’s Director of Corporate Services…
My walk to work takes me down Long Row, where outside the Tesco Express there will often be someone sitting on cardboard, a barrier between cold pavement and human body. They might ask for change, a hot drink, some food, or nothing at all. Further down there might be a human-shaped sleeping bag in the doorway of the old British Heart Foundation, or one of the other empty buildings.
It’s difficult to not feel a sense of guilt and confusion. You ask yourself, ‘why am I walking to work after sleeping in a warm bed, whilst someone has spent the night in the cold and will spend the day asking strangers for help?’.
That feeling might cause you to say hello as you pass by, or nip into a shop to get some food or a drink as a small gesture of support, but ultimately you’ll carry on walking and will eventually be inside where you can warm cold hands and ears, peel off a wet coat, and just carry on with life.
Edward once lived like this too, in the warmth, with a family and a job, but after a mental breakdown he found himself homeless.
“I've had my sleeping bags set fire to. I've had a terracotta plant pot chucked at my head,” Edward tells me. “But some of the gestures that've been made to me since I've been in this city have been so overwhelming, they've actually brought me to tears.”
Before becoming homeless Edward had always worked. His job history reads like an offbeat nursery rhyme – baker, wedding cake decorator, industrial painter, bricklayer, carer. He wants to restart his life, but the rut of homelessness is a deep one and not easy to escape.
“For me to take one step,” Edward says, “it's not just one step for me, it has to be ten steps.”
Edward is talking about comprehensive support – not just getting a roof over your head, but also getting access to the right resources to resolve deeper issues that might’ve led to becoming, or staying, homeless.
On a more immediate level, I ask Edward what people can do if they see someone on the street.
“Oh, just a hello. And not just walk past like we're not even there, or like we've got two heads.”
It can feel like a hollow gesture but a simple hello can make a huge difference.
“The more people make you feel ostracised,” Edwards tells me. “The more you shut yourself away, the bigger you build your walls, and the longer it takes to get back to that kind of reality where I want to be.”
As recently as 2023, a YouGov poll reported that 32% of Britons believed most homelessness results from bad individual choices. Blaming the individual rather than assessing their circumstances has long been a barrier for helping people.
“Homelessness is a complicated thing,” Dave Newmarch, Framework’s Director of Corporate Services, tells me. “People become homeless for multiple different reasons.”
Framework is a Nottingham-based homelessness charity, helping more than 18,000 people each year get their lives back on track. Dave has been at Framework since the early 2000s, but began working in Nottingham housing services in 1993. I ask how the understanding of homelessness has changed since then.
“Back then, somebody would turn up and they were quite possibly a drinker. You saw them as ‘That's Barry, he's a drinker’. Now the same person might turn up and you would go, ‘Oh, Barry ticks an SMD (severe multiple disadvantage) in disease, because they’ve got childhood trauma, they're unemployed’. We're looking much more in depth at why that person ends up where they are.”
Despite better understanding, the challenge for Framework is greater than ever. In 2024 they identified 592 different people who spent at least one night outdoors, a 76% increase on the previous year.
The more you shut yourself away, the bigger you build your walls, and the longer it takes to get back to that kind of reality where I want to be.
Dave explains how funding for supported housing has been falling in real terms since 2010, before taking me back to the late 90s when there was more financial backing.
“We nailed it. You didn't see what you see on the streets now. We got it down to zero rough sleeping on more than two nights, for a considerable period.”
As we talk about getting back to near zero rough sleeping, Dave explains that housing alone is not a magic bullet. Accommodation needs to meet individual needs, there needs to be adequate support to break damaging cycles, and there needs to be preventative measures to stop people from becoming homeless in the first place.
Housing still remains hugely important, and Dave is keen to highlight the local government’s role in improving the current situation.
“It was tricky for a while,” Dave tells me. “You couldn't apply for social housing. Credit to Nottingham City Council – properties are becoming available again.”
The conversation turns to Lee House: a twenty-unit property built to tackle rough sleeping, which is currently in development and a combined project between Homes England, Nottingham City Council, and Framework.
“It's got that therapeutic space,” Dave explains. “So we can work with those individuals. Funding is a little longer term, up to three years, which gives us more of a chance.”
Providing that sense of chance – that bit of hope – is key.
“I don't want to be homeless,” Edward tells me. “But it's so difficult to get out of it once you're in it. You can have all the best intentions in the world, please believe me – it's not like I'm not motivated to, it's the motivation being dragged out of me.”
The longer someone is homeless, the harder it becomes to break that cycle. There is a heavy human cost when someone doesn’t have a place to call their own, or a routine to keep them occupied – when they’re ignored by the vast majority of society, and the basics we take for granted, like warmth or being dry, become second-by-second survival.
I ask Dave about the future of homelessness services and he mentions the National Homelessness Strategy, which is expected to be published this year. There is hope that it will recognise the need for comprehensive support to match the complexity of homelessness. Though regardless of what the strategy delivers in the future, how we act today makes a difference.
You don’t have to donate to Framework, or volunteer, or write to your MP (although these are all vital acts). You can make a difference by saying hello, sharing a brief moment with someone – being one of the few who stops for a second before getting to carry on with life.
To help direct the Framework Street Outreach Team to any rough sleepers for welfare checks, please contact them on 0800 066 5356 or text ‘SOT’ followed by your message to 80800.
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
