CHAIN’s Quarterly Report: Uncovering the Hidden Reality of Rough Sleeping in Kingston

London’s official homelessness database, the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN), released 2026’s first quarter report, revealing a 10% reduction in rough sleeping across the capital compared to this time last year. Greater London

New rough sleepers: 1,685 people were seen sleeping rough for the first time, a 16% year-on-year (YoY) reduction. 77% of those people were seen on just a single night, pointing to effective and rapid intervention.
Living on the Streets: 680 individuals have been classified as long-term street residents, down 14% YoY but up 6% from the January to March 2026 period.
Total number seen rough sleeping: Down 10% YoY to 3,959 from 4,392. Of that total, new rough sleepers account for 43% of all rough sleepers, and 17% of those were recorded as living on the streets.

Kingston upon Thames London-wide data has shown positive momentum. Local statistics, gathered by us at KCAH, give us more of an insight into the complexity and underlying issues behind the raw stats.

Total seen sleeping rough: Official CHAIN data recorded 19 people sleeping rough in Kingston during Q1, a 47.5% reduction from 40 in Q1 2025. By comparison, neighbouring boroughs Richmond and Merton recorded 37 and 16 individuals respectively.

The Hidden Demand: However, raw statistics only tell part of the story. When we adjust the official figures to account for known demographic groups that historically do not engage with our services, a stark gap appears. In Q1 2025, the adjusted official count was 23 people, which aligned almost perfectly with the 22 individuals who registered with us. In Q1 2026, the adjusted official count fell to just 11 individuals. Conversely, we registered 26 new individuals declaring to be rough sleeping. This reveals that core local demand is actually intensifying, with our frontline services seeing more than double the need suggested by the adjusted official data.

Local demand on KCAH: Through the Housing Crisis Intervention Service (HCIS), KCAH logged 117 new registrations in Q1 2026 overall. Mental health pressures: Of the 18 assessed among the 19 observed sleeping rough in Kingston, 10 needed support for more than one of the following: mental health, drugs and alcohol. 55 of KCAH’s new registrations reported mental health issues. Of the new registrants this quarter, 35% of individuals had two or more mental health conditions, with anxiety and depression being the leading causes. The Broader Picture Taking London’s statistics at face value, there seems to be a real positive direction in preventing and addressing rough sleeping across our capital. Yet, when we look closely at locally collected data in Kingston, we uncover a growing hidden demand and unearth a root issue causing homelessness: mental health. An individual’s mental wellbeing directly impacts their ability to maintain relationships, retain employment, and sustain stable housing. With anxiety and depression being such debilitating illnesses, and many people experiencing them both at the same time, professional, unbiased support and advice from our HCIS team is at the epicentre for tackling homelessness in today’s society.