16 January 2025
The Government of Jersey has published the latest quarterly data on the nature and scale
of homelessness in Jersey.
The Homelessness in Jersey Report, Third Quarter 2024, can be read here: Homelessness in Jersey Report: Third Quarter 2024.
Tackling the issue of homelessness in Jersey is one of the Housing Minister’s priorities and
part of the Homelessness Strategy, and the publication of this report fulfils a key objective
of the strategy to better evidence homelessness in Jersey.
Last year, the Minister launched a project to improve the collection of evidence on
homelessness in Jersey, drawing together data from organisations in Jersey who assist
people who are homeless or facing homelessness.
The organisations who have reported their data, and who will continue to do so every
quarter, in an anonymised format, are:
- The Shelter Trust
- FREEDA (formerly the Women’s Refuge)
- The Sanctuary Trust
- The Jersey Association for Youth and Fellowship (JAYF), and
- The Government of Jersey’s Housing Advice Service (HAS).
Since the publication of the first quarterly report in October 2024, data from JAYF has been included for the first time in the Third Quarter
report.
The inclusion of JAYF in the report strengthens understanding about homelessness
amongst young people, aged 18 to 25.
Key statistics highlighted in the Third Quarter report include:
- there were 265 service visits by 246 Islanders to homeless accommodation and
service providers
- 69% of Islanders recorded as homeless were male and 31% were female
- 49 people under 26 years old were reported as experiencing homelessness
- there were 201 Islanders living in temporary shelter accommodation for some, or
all, of the quarter, and that
- issues relating to domestic abuse were the main recorded reason for
homelessness among females in 32% of cases, whilst substance use was the main
recorded reason for homelessness among males in 14% of cases.
Commenting on the publication of the quarterly report, Housing Minister, Deputy Sam
Mézec, said:
“This quarterly report is the second of its type and continues the important work of
providing meaningful data about homelessness in Jersey. I am grateful to the agencies
who have taken time and effort in providing the valuable data to my team, and their
ongoing partnership in producing these reports. I am also pleased that for the first time,
we have included data from the Jersey Association of Youth and Friendship. The inclusion
of data from JAYF helps to strengthen our understanding about young people in Jersey who
are experiencing homelessness, and the types of accommodation and support that we
might need to put in place to meet their needs.
“As this is the second report, we are still early in the reporting cycle, and I am cautious
about making quarter to quarter comparisons at this stage. This is something that I fully
expect that we will be able to do as the quarterly reports develop over time. However,
we can already see there are some clear themes emerging, where the data reflects the
issues and experiences that we hear in our discussions with agencies.
“This includes the longer-term residency among men and their challenges around mental
health and substance use, and the significant reason for homelessness among women
resulting from their experience of domestic abuse.
“The purpose of these reports is help tackle issues surrounding homelessness in Jersey,
enabling us to improve our policies and services that will support Islanders facing
homelessness. As a result of the first report, for example, we improved the process for
identifying and prioritising applications for social housing where a person is at risk of
homelessness to ensure rapid access to suitable housing.
“The reports also raise public awareness about homelessness in Jersey, and the support
services available for anyone facing homelessness. I would encourage anyone in this
difficult situation to contact the Housing Advice Service for support and guidance."
The Minister added: “As ever, I am deeply grateful to the agencies who have taken time to
work with my team to provide data, which allow us all to develop a better understanding of
homelessness in Jersey. It is, however, always important to remember the very human
nature of this issue, and that behind the statistics, there are many personal stories and
experiences of homelessness.”
gov.je