page_title: Brighton
section_title: Homelessness
hierarchical_section_title: Brighton / Demography / Homelessness
caption_attribution_description: English: Brighton 2019, Castle Square - homelessness, tents
context_page_description: Brighton is a constituent part of the city of Brighton and Hove, a former town situated on the southern coast of England, in the county of East Sussex. It is best known as a seaside resort and is positioned 47 miles south of London. It was created from the neighbouring but formerly separately governed towns of Brighton and Hove.
  Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods. The ancient settlement of "Brighthelmstone" was documented in the Domesday Book. The town's importance grew in the Middle Ages as the Old Town developed, but it languished in the early modern period, affected by foreign attacks, storms, a suffering economy and a declining population. Brighton began to attract more visitors following improved road transport to London and becoming a boarding point for boats travelling to France. The town also developed in popularity as a health resort for sea bathing as a purported cure for illnesses.
context_section_description: In 2016, Government figures analysed by the charity Shelter revealed that Brighton and Hove had the worst rate for homelessness outside London and is worse than some boroughs in the capital. Based on the Freedom of Information data there are 4,095 people sleeping rough or in emergency or temporary accommodation in the city, suggesting that one in 69 people in Brighton and Hove was homeless. In a charity report issued in November 2016, three areas in Brighton & Hove, East Brighton, Queen's Park, and Moulsecoomb & Bevendean ranked in the top ten per cent nationally for deprivation.
  Although deprivation in Brighton is distributed across the whole of the city it is more concentrated in some areas than others. The highest concentration of deprivation is in the Whitehawk, Moulsecoomb, and Hollingbury areas of the city but is also found around the St. James's Street and Eastern Road areas. A 2015 government statistic showed that the area around Brighton's Palace Pier roundabout and to the east towards St James's Street in Kemptown is the seventh-worst ‘living environment’ in England. On 19 January 2017, Brighton council announced they were looking at certain initiatives to try to alleviate some of the increasing homelessness seen on Brighton's streets and were hoping to open the first in-house temporary housing for homeless people in the city. 
  Homelessness figures released by Crisis in December 2018 reported a record high in the UK, with figures in Sussex, including Brighton and Hove, reported as being ‘high.’ Proposals for Brighton and Hove Council to pass a homeless bill of rights are presently in discussions, after councillors in the city gave their unanimous backing. If the bill moves forward it would make Brighton the first city in the UK to have such a bill.
caption: Rough sleepers' tents in Brighton's Castle Square
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