Ahead of Focus4Hope’s Tenth Anniversary Ball, Founder and CEO, Louise Reed, lifts the lid on the realities of working to help the homeless.
Homelessness across all indicators reached its most severe levels in decades this year. Together with my team, I’ve been helping homeless and vulnerable people for several years now. You don’t get used to it – you just get better at dealing with it and carrying on anyway.
Homelessness is measured differently across the UK but the overall trend is that more people are losing their homes, staying homeless for longer and struggling to get secure accommodation.
“How do you do it?” It’s the question I’m asked most often, and while it can feel futile there are moments
that keep you going, for example someone finally trusting you enough to take a hot drink, let you call a GP, or step inside a shelter for the first time in months.
We worked with one recently homeless woman who was living in a Leeds encampment and being exploited by a male rough sleeper. She’d been bitten by a dog, was extremely frail, and dealing with the consequences of mental and physical abuse. We worked with her and other Leeds agencies to get her into a better living situation and she’s now in a women’s refuge. She’s starting to slowly recover and had her hair done for the first time in weeks recently. It shows what’s possible when you work together against all the odds, but without adequate funding and preventative policies, it’s becoming harder and harder to reach the people who need us.
The scale of the problem
We’ve watched a huge escalation unfold between 2024 and 2026 with profound dismay, every major indicator showing significant increases. In real terms, every number is a person losing their home, a family having to live in single rooms, a child growing up in a B&B. The fallout that follows – addiction, plummeting mental health etc – is often far more costly to society in human and financial terms.
The factors driving the crisis include Section 21 “no fault” evictions, rising private rents and frozen Local Housing Allowance, a chronic shortage of social housing, and cost of living pressures. Weather events such as the recent heatwave worsen the problem, exposing inequalities around who can stay safe and who can’t. Challenges include tents and sleeping pods becoming dangerously overheated, the impact of sleeping on hot surfaces such as tarmac, and heat exhaustion from having to carry belongings everywhere to prevent theft. It’s heart-breaking to see it first-hand.
Policy responses such as the Renters’ Rights Act are under way, but I worry about ways to respond meaningfully while we wait for the benefits to materialise. Nobody ends up on the street by choice. Homelessness is often just the house of cards that finally collapses.
Focus4Hope is a West Yorkshire charity that supports vulnerable people through crisis intervention, community outreach and practical help. The organisation is approaching its 10th anniversary – tickets for its fundraising ball can be purchased at focus4hope.co.uk/events/
Hard facts
117,400 households were in temporary accommodation by the end of 2025 in England alone, the highest number ever recorded
4,793 people were rough sleeping in England on a single night in autumn 2025, the highest ever recorded
Rough sleeping in England is 96% higher than in 2021 and 171% higher than in 2010
About Louise Reed
Louise Reed is one of Yorkshire’s most influential community figures. Her journey into charitable work began in 2016, triggered by the widely publicised image of Alan Kurdi, a two year-old Syrian boy who drowned while crossing the Mediterranean Sea with his mother and brother. With daughters of a similar age, the tragedy struck her deeply and she began volunteering to support refugees in crisis, including facilitating dental treatment through partnerships with Town Hall Dental.
While helping abroad, Louise recognised the scale of need at home, worsened when the COVID pandemic struck in 2019. She gathered friends and professional contacts to form a community group, which later became Focus4Hope and achieved full charity status in November 2020. Now approaching its tenth anniversary, it’s become a lifeline for people who are isolated, vulnerable and disadvantaged. This includes homeless people, elderly people, domestic abuse survivors and refugees.
Homelessness has doubled in the past year and Louise wants Focus4Hope to continue to rise to the occasion, increasing the volume of vital services in a bid to avoid individuals reaching crisis point. The charity is already planning for Christmas, including its hamper project (over 550 were delivered last year), gifts for children and young adults, and grants for heating.
Louise leads the charity tirelessly, balancing grassroots support with strategies to grow the team, raise awareness, and mobilise entire communities. She also coordinates large-scale fundraising events, including Focus4Hope’s Ten-Year Anniversary Ball.
The Ball takes place on Saturday 19th September in Brighouse, hosted by presenter, influencer, reality TV star and Focus4Hope ambassador Matt Jameson.
Tickets can be purchased here.
Photography by Danny Thompson Photography.
Main image: Louise Reed in Leeds.
