22 people died while homeless in Camden in 2025, up from 17 and 9, the Museum of Homelessness says. Only three UK areas had a higher reported death rate.
At least 22 people died while homeless in Camden in 2025. That is up from 17 the year before and 9 in 2023, so the number has more than doubled in two years.
The figures come from the Dying Homeless Project 2025, the annual count published this week by the Museum of Homelessness. It names Camden among the five places in the UK with the highest rate of reported deaths.
Camden against the rest of the UK
The report measures deaths per 100,000 residents aged 15 to 74. On that measure Camden recorded 13.0, the fourth highest in the UK and the highest in London.
Only Bristol (15.0), Brighton and Hove (14.5) and the City of Edinburgh (13.5) were higher. Hackney, at 12.2, was the only other London borough in the top six.
A rise while London’s total fell
Across London the project counted 286 deaths in 2025, down from 326 in 2024 and 310 in 2023. Camden went the other way.
The report’s London table shows how uneven the picture is:
| Borough | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hackney | 25 | 8 | 12 |
| Camden | 22 | 17 | 9 |
| Enfield | 12 | 24 | 15 |
| Lambeth | 10 | 20 | 11 |
| Newham | 5 | 31 | 24 |
The authors are wary of the London fall. They write that much of it “is likely due to systematic gaps in reporting”, particularly from boroughs in east and south west London. They also question the figure the City of Westminster gave them, which was half the previous year’s.
That matters when reading Camden’s number. A borough that records deaths carefully can look worse than one that does not. The report does not suggest Camden’s figure is incomplete.
What the count includes
The project counts everyone who died while experiencing any form of homelessness, not only people sleeping on the street. That covers:
- people sleeping rough or with no fixed abode
- people in temporary accommodation, such as hostels and B&Bs
- people in supported and exempt accommodation
- other insecure housing
Each death is verified by a Freedom of Information reply, a coroner’s report, a homelessness organisation or a family member, the report says. One of Camden’s 22 was in exempt accommodation, according to the report’s table 14.
The report does not break down Camden’s deaths by age, cause or type of housing.
How many people sleep rough in Camden
The Greater London Authority’s CHAIN annual report for 2025/26 gives the borough’s scale. Outreach workers saw 974 people sleeping rough in Camden between April 2025 and March 2026. Only Westminster, with 2,583, had more.
Camden’s figure was 975 the year before, so it has held level. Of the 974:
- 504 were new to rough sleeping
- 337 had also been seen the year before
- 133 had returned after a gap
CHAIN runs April to March and counts only people seen on the street. The Dying Homeless Project runs by calendar year and covers all forms of homelessness, so the two figures measure different things.
The national picture
Across the UK the project recorded 1,720 deaths in 2025, up 6.8% on 1,611 the year before. England’s total rose 8% to 1,235.
Where the cause was known, the report says 52% were “deaths of despair”, linked to drugs, alcohol or suicide. The median age at death was 45 for women and 48 for men.
The project also found 197 deaths that councils had not reported to it. By its count, that means at least one in ten homeless deaths is missing from local authority records.
What it means for you
If you are worried about someone sleeping rough in Camden, the council’s rough sleeping page gives three ways to tell its outreach team:
- call Camden Outreach Service free on 0808 800 0005, or on 0207 846 3535
- email the outreach team from the council’s page
- make a referral through StreetLink
If the person is in immediate danger or unwell, call 999.
If you are worried about losing your home, Camden’s advice page says to tell the council as soon as possible. “Do not wait until you’ve been evicted,” it says.
Camden Council has not published a response to the report. We will add one if it does.
Sources
- Museum of Homelessness: Dying Homeless Project 2025, published October 2026: table 5 (London boroughs 2023 to 2025), figure 5 (rates per 100,000), table 14 (exempt accommodation) and the executive summary. Project page: museumofhomelessness.org/dhp.
- Greater London Authority: CHAIN annual report, Greater London, 2025/26, tables 2 and 3.
- Camden Council: rough sleeping and evicted and at risk of being homeless, read 17 October 2026.
Have your say