Military Veterans: Homelessness rising for former Royal Navy, Army and RAF personnel despite funding boost

Data from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) reveals that the number of former service personnel classed as homeless has increased by 14 per cent in a fiscal year. This equates to roughly 500 new veterans assessed as owed homeless duty by the local authority every three months. Several schemes - including Operation Fortitude - are being pushed to try and stop the increase; some vulnerable veterans have been rehoused, but others are less fortunate.

Portsmouth South MP Stephen Morgan was left incandescent by the statistics. The Labour politician said: "It should shame everyone in this Tory government that thousands more former Armed Forces personnel have been made homeless in the last year." Gosport MP Dame Caroline Dinenage, Conservative, said she was worried about the rise in homelessness but more accurate data is due to be released and show a clearer picture.

"It’s absolutely vital that we support those who have served our country," she told The News. "Any rise in official statistics of veteran homelessness is of course concerning, but we will have to wait until April to find out the accurate data for 2023." During the 2022-2023 fiscal year, 2,110 households in England contained someone who had served in the armed forces was classed as homeless.

This has climbed from 1,850 households in 2021-2022, a rise of 14 per cent. Households were included in statistics following assessments by DLUHC officials. Of the 1,007 households which contained people with support needs in Portsmouth in 2022-2023, 22 cases involved armed forces veterans at risk of being ending up on the streets. This has risen from four veteran households out of 419 which contained someone with support needs.

From 2,308 initial household assessments in the same time period in the city, 725 were at risk of homelessness within 56 days. Mr Morgan said a Labour government would enshrine the Armed Forces Covenant in law and service personnel would have access to housing "fit for heroes". He added: "One of the reasons I got into politics was to fight for people like my grandfather who was a D-Day veteran and for today’s armed forces personnel serving in our city."

Gosport, which has the largest proportion of former service personnel compared to its population, has seen a similar rise. In 2022-2023, 21 households at risk of homelessness (out of 324) involved veterans, compared to 11 from 290 in the previous fiscal year. Ms Dinenage said the government is working hard to tackle the problem, and a visit from the veterans affairs minister Johnny Mercer last November highlighted that the government is taking the matter seriously. She added that vulnerable veterans have already been rehoused under the scheme.

"The Government has invested £8.8m in the Operation Fortitude programme to fund thousands of supported housing places," she said. "This has housed 400 veterans so far and attempted to eliminate rough sleeping. I have been campaigning for a dedicated Hotline so that constituency MPs can discuss concerns about veterans in their area more quickly."