Findings:

Low educational attainment during childhood could be a result of early-life experiences of homelessness, and may also increase the likelihood of experiencing homelessness. 

Experiencing homelessness can create further barriers to improving literacy and numeracy skills later in life.

Low levels of literacy and numeracy create barriers to accessing employment and services, leading to greater instability, lower income, worse health, and greater precariousness. 

There are higher rates of learning difficulties, such as dyslexia and learning disabilities among people experiencing homelessness.

Low literacy and numeracy skills can intensify feelings of social exclusion and can be internalised into feelings of shame, acting as barriers to accessing services.

There is a limited evidence base assessing the effectiveness of interventions to improve the literacy and numeracy of people experiencing homelessness. 

A high-quality literacy or numeracy intervention should:

(1) account for adverse past experiences and shame; (2) account for learning disabilities and neurodiversity; (3) account for heterogeneity in life stage and gender; (4) be grounded in what has been shown to work in literacy education; and (5) be grounded in what is relevant for learners. 

Literacy interventions should consider evidence-based pedagogical principles.

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Recommendations in Brief

Efforts to improve literacy and/or numeracy in adults, for example the Department for Education’s Multiply programme, should specifically target people who are at risk of, or have already experienced, homelessness like those currently living in temporary accommodation. 

Similarly, individuals who are owed a homelessness prevention duty should also be triaged for adult literacy and numeracy support. 

Interventions for people currently experiencing homelessness should focus on short, modular learning rather than solely on long-term courses. Priority should be given to short confidence-building workshops, informal group activities to address stigma and shame, and 'contextualised curricula' focused on occupational skills and other relevant topics.

Interventions for people experiencing homelessness should consider the higher prevalence of learning difficulties and disabilities, including dyslexia and dyspraxia, and make instructional adjustments as needed to support these learners.

In general, instructional interventions should leverage pedagogical approaches and techniques that have been shown to be successful in improving literacy and numeracy skills for adults, such as guided reading, gradual release instruction, and diagramming.

Future research should examine the impact of interventions for disadvantaged backgrounds on people with experiences of homelessness, for example  understanding the impacts of interventions funded by the Education Endowment Foundation and their effects on homelessness.

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