Ealing Council has published a draft Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy for 2027 to 2032 and opened a public consultation running until 18 December 2026, setting a target to reduce households in temporary accommodation to 2,000 and to bring annual rough sleeping figures below 500.
The strategy also sets an ambition to reduce the council’s single-night rough sleeping count to fewer than 20 people, the council said. The proposals are draft and subject to consultation, and the council has not linked each measure to specific funding in the document.
Council figures show 2,544 households were living in temporary accommodation in July 2026, down from a peak of more than 3,000 in late 2024. The council said 642 people were recorded sleeping rough in the borough during 2025/26, down from 723 the previous year. A separate single-night count recorded 42 people sleeping rough.
The strategy emphasises that rough sleeping counts are snapshot measures and notes there is a difference between annual records and single-night counts. The targets set out in the draft document carry no statutory force and could change after the consultation, the council said.
What the strategy proposes
The draft sets out a range of preventative and support measures. It proposes offering housing advice earlier, before residents reach crisis point, increasing provision of supported housing, and improving coordination between housing services, health services and other agencies. The council said these measures are intended to help people avoid homelessness and to provide more stable routes out of temporary accommodation.
The council’s review of experiences leading to homelessness points to rising rents, a shortage of affordable homes and the ending of private tenancies as major drivers. The review states that homelessness resulting from the loss of a private tenancy rose from 63 households in 2020/21 to 371 in 2024/25, and it warns that employment alone is no longer a guarantee of housing security.
Residents who took part in the council’s review described disruption to children’s schooling and long journeys while living in temporary accommodation, and expressed concerns about being placed outside the borough away from work, healthcare and family. Those experiences are set out in the draft strategy as evidence for a focus on earlier intervention and better local provision.
Councillor Louise Brett, deputy leader and cabinet member for safe and genuinely affordable homes, said the strategy sets out how the council plans to prevent homelessness, support people sleeping rough and help residents find long-term stability. The council has invited residents, charities and housing providers to respond through its consultation survey until 18 December 2026.
The document does not attach a line by line budget to each of the proposed measures. The council acknowledged in the strategy that delivery will depend on resources and partnerships with housing providers and health services, and that the targets are aspirational conditions for monitoring progress rather than statutory obligations.
Campaigners and housing providers were not quoted in the council’s publication, but the paper frames the council’s role as coordinating support and prevention while recognising wider market pressures, such as limited supply of affordable housing and pressures in the private rented sector. The review points to an increase in homelessness caused by private tenancy endings over recent years as a key local trend.
The consultation will inform the final strategy for 2027 to 2032. After the consultation closes on 18 December 2026, the council said it will consider responses and publish a final version setting out how it will measure progress against the stated targets over the coming five years.
