The Wallich calls for urgent action to tackle homelessness after prison
Homelessness charity The Wallich says urgent action is needed to stop people leaving prison in Wales without somewhere safe to live.
Responding to a new Wales Governance Centre report, Jamie Lee Cole said releasing people into homelessness was “unacceptable and completely avoidable”.
She warned that without better co-operation between housing, health and justice services, people would continue to fall through the gaps.
The report found 695 prison leavers supervised by Welsh probation services were sleeping rough on the day of their release in 2025/26 – a rise of 24%.
It also found drug poisoning accounted for 37% of deaths among prison leavers supervised in the community in Wales last year, compared with 21% across England and Wales.
Ms Cole said drug use needed to be treated as a health issue, rather than simply a criminal justice matter.
“The war on drugs hasn’t worked,” she said, arguing that punitive approaches were failing to prevent drug-related deaths.
She said some people leaving prison ended up rough sleeping, while others reoffended because navigating complicated support systems could be so difficult.
Ms Cole warned that without long-term solutions, Wales would remain caught in a “revolving door” of homelessness and reoffending.