Oxford City Council have announced plans for a new face-to-face centre on George Street to tackle homelessness.
In a press release, the council said the new site would “strengthen the focus on homelessness prevention” and “enhance support for residents, particularly those experiencing homelessness, while delivering projected savings of £150,000 a year”.
Currently, most homelessness assessments are conducted over the phone, but the new centre will aim to provide more in-person services. Face-to-face homelessness services will be scaled from two days a week to five days a week to “enable more tailored support” and “better identification of health and wellbeing needs.”
The centre will relocate homelessness services from Westgate Library to “improve service accessibility.” In a press release, Cllr Nigel Chapman, Cabinet Member for Citizen Focused Services and Council Companies at Oxford City Council, described the development as “real value for money” and “a positive step forward for both residents and staff”.
Data from the UK Government’s latest ‘snapshot’ survey of homelessness in UK local authorities, taken in Autumn 2025, shows a 30% drop in those thought to be rough sleeping on the surveyed night in Oxford, from 46 in 2023 to 32 in 2025. The fall comes after a 140% increase in rough sleeping in Oxford recorded by snapshot surveys from 2020 to 2023.
Cllr Linda Smith, Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities, told Cherwell: “The number of individuals rough sleeping in the city has remained stable for the last few years and is credit to continued good partnerships.” Snapshot surveys record “only those seen, or thought to be, sleeping rough on a single ‘typical’ night”, and do not incorporate local authority data for those in temporary or insecure accommodation.
In their 2023-2028 Housing, Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy, Oxford City Council pledged to develop “services and partnerships that are focused on preventing people losing their homes, [that] rapidly rehouse who become homeless, and end the need to sleep rough”. The council has also launched a public consultation on an updated countywide Oxfordshire homelessness and rough sleeping strategy for 2026-2028.
