EXCLUSIVE: One of Britain’s most beloved coastal towns is struggling and locals say they don’t know how it’s got so bad.
Hastings has had a homelessness problem for years but locals say it’s getting worse (Image: Humphrey Nemar)
Behind the pebbled shores of Hastings, a crisis is deepening, one that locals say has turned their town into a place they barely recognise anymore. Residents of this once proud seaside town on England’s south coast claim homelessness has reached a breaking point, with families crammed into temporary accommodation, vulnerable people sent to live miles away, and tents appearing on the seafront.
The reality of the East Sussex seaside resort’s housing problems hit you as soon as you step outside the train station. Before you’ve even had time to walk into town, a towering, seven-storey office block looms into view, left derelict. Despite all this empty space, right next to it stands the Hastings Homeless Support Centre, where demand for its help is high.
In the heart of the town centre, blankets and sleeping bags can be seen scattered along streets as visible reminders many have nowhere else to go.
Gail Simms, who has lived in Hastings for about 50 years, ever since she moved there at the age of five, tells the Express she regularly sees young people and families living on the streets – although the local council says it does not believe there are any families sleeping rough.
She says: “There is too much homelessness here. It’s been like this for years, but the council don’t seem to care. It’s certainly got a lot worse. There’s no support.”
Gail Simms and her friend Sharon Meah (Image: Humphrey Nemar)
In its 2024 report, housing and homelessness charity Shelter found that one in 64 people in Hastings are homeless, with 1,431 people, including 665 children, living without a permanent home. The report found that Hastings has the highest number of children in temporary accommodation outside of London, with one in 28 local children homeless.
Gail continues: “There are loads of empty properties. There is a property up Cornwallis Gardens, and it’s like a huge block of flats, and it’s all empty. They’re all modern flats and they’re all empty. It’s disgraceful.”
She estimates that about 50 or 60 flats in this one location have nobody living in them, despite the chronic need for permanent homes. “It’s criminal for homes to be empty when they could house a few families,” she adds.
Kerry Ewens, 45, has lived in Hastings for 40 years and says she has witnessed the life being slowly sucked out of what was a once buzzing seaside community.
She adds: “There’s too many nail bars, too many coffee shops, too many crackheads, where do you want me to stop? There’s not enough housing for people. There are too many homeless people, it’s a joke.
“The rents for the shops are going up, so they’re shutting the shops. There’s no nightlife. There used to be loads of clubs. Basically, if you want a good point about the town, there ain’t one. Not anymore.”
Locals say homelessness has been a problem for years but is only getting worse (Image: Humphrey Nemar)
Kerry adds that drugs and shoplifting, as well as physical fights in the middle of the town centre, remain big issues.
According to a government report published in April, an alarming 67.6% of households in Broomgrove, in the north-east of Hastings, face at least one major form of deprivation, whether it’s lack of stable work, poor access to education, struggling health or inadequate housing.
Kerry’s wife, Dawn Ewens, 52, agrees that the town’s list of challenges is long.
She says: “Most of the landlords have doubled their rent over the last two years. My rent went up twice in six months.” She claims homelessness has got worse partly because of an influx of DFLs (down from Londoners) spiking demand for property in the area.
Dawn moved to Hastings when she was two years old. She explained how a fishmonger’s had been in the town since her arrival but has recently closed with the owner now only selling takeaway food from a stall once a week.
Kerry claims there is next to no temporary accommodation in Hastings and Dawn says she was evicted from her place and moved to accommodation in Ashford, over an hour’s drive away in neighbouring Kent, on her own. She suffers from severe anxiety and depression, which made the move even more difficult.
Many are having to wait up to 10 years in what temporary accommodation there is while they wait for something permanent, they tell the Express.
Jack Dalton says lots of independent shops in the town have closed (Image: Humphrey Nemar)
Dawn adds: “They won’t even put my daughter on the [housing waiting] list and she’s living in a two-bedroom flat with three kids.”
Kerry adds: “We know someone who’s in temporary accommodation, they give them [an expectation of a] 10-year [wait]. It’s a joke. Why are we here? Because I’ve got family here.
“I don’t know why the town’s got like this, I don’t.”
Dawn adds: “It never used to be like this. It used to be a really fun place when I was a kid.”
Jack Dalton, 56, has been living in Hastings for over 50 years, and says that the town has changed in dramatic ways over the years.
He says: “It used to be beautiful here. I still love it here but it’s just changed so much because you’ve got all these DFLs, we call them, down from Londons, buying up everything.
“They’ve tried to turn them all into Airbnbs but Hastings Council are blocking a lot of that now.
“Homelessness has gone crazy. It’s gone mental. Usually you see a community of tents down by the seafront.”
Many, including him have had to move out of the pretty Old Town due to rising prices. Now he lives in Water Square but he says that even this area is becoming more ‘upmarket’ meaning he’ll probably have to move soon.
The character of the town is also changing, he says, due to members of its fishing industry not being able to afford to live there.
He adds: “The whole town used to just be full of fishermen. Now all the pubs have gone up about £7 or £8 so only the down from Londons can afford these kind of places.”
There has been a decrease in the number of independent shops on George Street, he adds, but he does reminisce warmly about its bookshop that has been there ever since he was a child.
Ian Gallagher from Xtrax Young People’s Centre (Image: Humphrey Nemar)
Ian Gallagher, a senior project coordinator at Xtrax Young People’s Centre in Hastings, also spoke about how housing is a big problem for those they help.
He says: “We work with 16 to 24-year-olds, offering a confidential service. We’re not mental health practitioners, but we offer a safe space where young people can offload and be directed to the right services.
“Housing has become much more difficult in recent years. We do a lot of work with the council and YMCA for referrals. The council genuinely do what they can with limited resources, but there simply aren’t enough.”
Ian also pointed out how buyers from London are impacting Hastings’ housing market. He adds: “A lot of people from London have come down, bought flats and rented them out as Airbnbs, taking these homes off the local housing market. I don’t want to demonise them, but it has affected the system.
“Many housing services, including the council, are facing budget cuts or stretched resources. They’re not getting more money, they’re getting less, so it’s definitely [getting] worse.”
Employment opportunities are also scarce for young people living in Hastings, especially apprenticeships, he says, with young people facing stiff competition from older, more experienced candidates.
But Ian sees hope. He says: “In many ways, people and organisations in Hastings have come together more than I’ve seen before. Cooperation is a real positive. We help young people by showing them what’s out there and guiding them towards the best chances for their futures.”
Sally-Ann Hart was a Tory MP for Hastings and Rye from 2019 to 2024 and is hoping to get the nomination to be the Conservative candidate for the Mayor of Sussex.
She tells the Express: “The local council seems to have no real incentive to do anything to solve homelessness.
“Shoplifting and abuse of shop workers are huge issues. There needs to be zero tolerance of anti-social behaviour in Hastings.
“One of the biggest issues in Hastings, which I was trying to solve, was job creation, improving education, and breaking the cycle of welfare dependency.
“Hastings is a coastal community, and we know that coastal communities around the country are struggling because we need to have some proper policies for our coastal communities, proper strategies, proper investments, and a really good think about what we can do to encourage better education, improved health outcomes, better jobs, better employment.”
A spokesperson for Hastings Borough Council said that as of March 31, 2025 there were only 20 households from the town having to be housed outside of Hastings, which is 3% of the households on the waiting list. They added that this number has reduced in the last two years.
Councillor Glenn Haffenden, leader of the council and lead councillor for housing, added: “We are working extremely hard to address the housing crisis we have in Hastings. We are spending a third of the entire council budget on housing so it is one of our top priorities to address this to ensure our financial stability as well as ensuring our residents have a safe and secure home.
“Work is due to start on the first council-built homes for many years in Bexhill Road this summer, providing 16 environmentally friendly homes. This project has been part-funded through the Levelling Up funding agreed by the previous government.
“Through our housing acquisition programme we have bought more than 110 properties, 50 of these are now tenanted, a total of 143 bedrooms. These properties are providing temporary accommodation for residents that is owned by the council. We are in control of how these properties are used, including allowing pets and overnight guests which are often not allowed in privately-owned temporary accommodation.
“We are continuing to buy properties to use as temporary accommodation and have another 10 in the conveyancing process.
“Our housing team works with residents who are at risk of homelessness to find solutions before they are homeless, this has helped more than 1,100 households who were threatened with homelessness. The team permanently prevented the homelessness of 269 without them needing to move into temporary accommodation.
“We have no families who are living on the street, and no families living in bed and breakfast accommodation, and only 20 households who are housed outside of the borough as at March 31, 2025, less than in 2023. These are mostly single people where it would be unsafe for them to remain in Hastings.
“We continue to lobby government for changes that would help us with this, including updating the local housing allowance and giving longer-term funding agreements so we are able to plan for longer-term spending.”
