Drinking poisoned water, running from gunshots & makeshift tents in remote woods…the shocking rise of rural homelessness

WAKING up in 90 mph winds and lashing rain, desperate Franc grabbed at the tarpaulin that formed the little protection he had against the elements – but his effort to stay dry was pointless.

For two years, Franc was one of a growing band of homeless people sleeping rough in the UK countryside, pitching makeshift tents in remote woods, using fly-tipped rubbish to build cookers and drinking unsanitary water in a bid for survival.

“I once mistakenly drank water run-off from a farmer’s field, ending up in the hospital,” he tells The Sun. 

“This left me with weak legs, incapacitating me for weeks and draining my strength. 

“Then there were storms with winds over 90 miles an hour, turning my tarpaulin shelter into a whipping sail. Sleep was often impossible.”

It hadn’t always been like this for him. Up until 2017, Franc had a roof over his head and a place to sleep at night.

But after falling on hard times financially, unable to work due to physical and mental health problems and facing ‘constant harassment’ from a rogue landlord – the situation came to a devastating head. 

In an untenable situation and plagued by thoughts of self harm, Franc got on a second hand push bike bought on eBay and started the 400-mile journey from Edinburgh to London to start a new life. 

On arriving in the city, he soon realised that being homeless in a city was not going to work for him. Constantly at threat of ‘abuse, drugs and police encounters’, he took to the countryside, away from the immediate danger but further from support and services.

“Despite the hardships, I found ways to survive and even create small measures of comfort,” he says. “I found fly-tipped bricks and an old Tesco basket, which I turned into a stove, so I could cook hot food.

“But being homeless, especially in a remote area, is complicated – you have to develop enough skills to be able to survive, but the longer you ‘cope’ alone, the more entrenched, isolated, and fearful you become.

“I remember a day when I woke up to a round of gunshots. I had unknowingly settled in a pheasant hunting ground, and it was hunting season.”

Huge rise in rural rough sleepers

Franc’s  story is becoming all too familiar to those working in the rural homelessness sector, who have seen a boom in people seeking help in less populated areas.

Research conducted by The Countryside Charity (CPRE) in December 2023 revealed that rural homelessness, in all its forms, has increased by 40 percent in the past five years.

The study, which includes those sleeping rough and those ‘sofa surfing’ without permanent accommodation, also highlights that the problem is worse in rural areas than many towns and cities.

The hidden epidemic is brewing quietly, with many unable to access support for healthcare, wellbeing, employment or housing due to transportation issues and lack of infrastructure. 

Turning Tides, an organisation based in West Sussex, is working directly with people – including Franc – who find themselves with no one else to turn to.

Many of their clients have found themselves sleeping rough in tents in fields, ditches or churchyards with others sleeping in wooded areas or forced to sofa surf to stay off the streets.

They have been forgotten and are alone with no cavalry charging in to help. 

“There’s been a huge increase in rural homelessness,” said Lucy Strong, deputy homelessness services manager for Turning Tides.

“Rental markets are unaffordable, the cost of living crisis has had a big impact on lower and middle income families. There’s a complete lack of affordable housing for single people. 

Being homeless, especially in a remote area, is complicated – you have to develop enough skills to be able to survive, but the longer you ‘cope’ alone, the more entrenched, isolated, and fearful you become

Franc

“In rural places in particular there are fewer places for just one person being built. All the developments are being built for people on a higher income.”

Another concern, Lucy adds, is that there is lower awareness of homelessness in rural areas due to services and resources being so limited. 

“It’s difficult to access services outside towns and cities,” she said.

“The chances of getting a specialist medical appointment as a homeless person in rural areas is slim to none. Often the appointments are spread out and public transport is expensive.

“The services to help people just aren’t there like they are in urban areas.”

Stigma is also a barrier for those living in the countryside, with people often going under the radar because they aren’t as visible as someone sitting in a doorway in a high-traffic street.

Lucy, who works at the Roffey Place, the charity’s Horsham based 24-hour support centre, added: “Where we operate is half an hour from the coast, it’s an affluent area and very conservative.

There’s a big stigma which is magnified in rural areas because it’s not something they tend to see very often. 

“For example if you have someone picking up a methadone prescription, in urban areas people won’t bat an eyelid if they saw someone just waiting outside a pharmacy – but in rural areas if someone is being made to wait outside, it does attract attention.”

Childhood drug addiction

Steve*, another client of Turning Tides, found himself sleeping ‘in a tent in the woods’ after being introduced to his stepdad’s drugs at the age of nine.

“I had to fend for myself when I was young,” he said. “I had five sisters and three brothers. I was neglected a lot.

“Mum remarried four times. My stepdad was an alcoholic and brought drugs such as crack cocaine into the house.

“At about age six, I started hearing voices. As I grew older the voices increased and I began shouting at them because they all said horrible things to me.

“I found my stepdad’s drugs and took them when he wasn’t there. I started drinking and smoking cannabis at nine years old.

“It became a habit and by the time I was a teenager I was hooked. It really was a cry for help – it helped me block out the noise, block out the pain.”

Sleeping in graveyard

Eventually Steve and his partner, who had a full-time job but not enough to cover any rent bills, found themselves sleeping rough in the countryside or moving from couch to couch.

“We sofa-surfed, slept in car parks, stairwells, a church graveyard. We slept wherever we could.

“If we didn’t have money, we just wouldn’t eat. We got a tent and put it up in the woods. We were there for 18 months.”

Tom Stewart, who works in campaigns for CPRE, said that one of the main reasons for the boom is not only the ‘extreme disparity’ between rural housing costs and rural wages, but the ‘overlooked shortage’ of affordable housing in these areas.

“There are currently more than 300,000 people on waiting lists for social rented housing in rural England, an increase of just over 10 percent in 2018,” he said.

“At the current rate of construction, it would take 89 years for everyone on a waiting list to be offered a home.

“Current planning policies allow for the building of new ‘affordable’ housing costing anything up to 80 per cent of market value. This means that in many rural areas the ‘affordable homes’ being provided are often anything but.”

Second homes and holiday lets have also been cited as a ‘major problem’ regarding homelessness among people growing up in popular staycation hotspots, which also tend to be in the countryside.

“In Cornwall, where more than 15,000 families are on social housing waiting lists, the number of properties for short-term let grew by 661 per cent in the five years to 2021,” Tom added.

“Half of the families on social housing waiting lists in South Lakeland could be accommodated in local properties available exclusively as holiday rentals.”

In a similar fashion, Devon has seen 4,000 homes taken off the private rental market and 11,000 new short-term listings since 2016.  

And although the challenges faced by homeless people in both rural and urban areas may seem vastly different, both are ‘dangerous’ in their own unique ways.

The Rural Homelessness Counts Coalition (RHCC), run by charity English Rural working alongside CPRE and Turning Tides – among others – are striving to bring rural homelessness levels down by raising the profile of the issues and working in partnership with local authorities to find housing solutions in sparse communities.

Rory Weal, chair of the RHCC, said: “There are particular challenges faced by those in rural areas, how isolated people can be, how hard it is for them to travel, housing services, health services. All of these issues together have created a crisis.

“The answer is to provide people with a long term roof over their heads. Sleeping rough in rural areas is just as dangerous as in urban areas.

“We know that these people sleeping rough are more likely to face serious health conditions and to find it hard to get support for health conditions. We know that rough sleepers in general are more likely to be at risk of violence and abuse.

“The people we work with say that they feel forgotten by the rest of society and their community – it pushes them further into a spiral of chaos.

“That’s why we need to provide more housing and support in these areas. We need to invest more in health and wellbeing support services and get them off the streets.”

*Steve’s name has been changed to protect his identity