This 15-month project was conducted by St Mungo’s clients and the research team. This report illustrates the key findings from a qualitative peer research project examining the relationship between transient work and homelessness.
Before the coronavirus pandemic hit the UK, St Mungo’s investigated the experiences of people who have slept rough, and gone on to try and access social housing.
Social housing should provide safe, affordable and secure homes for people who are in the most urgent housing need, but the rate of social house building has slowed dramatically in recent years. As a result the number of new lettings has rapidly declined. All too often, social housing is completely unavailable to those with no other options – because there isn’t enough of it for everyone who needs it.
Before the coronavirus pandemic hit the UK, St Mungo’s investigated the experiences of people who have slept rough, and gone on to try and access social housing. We interviewed clients, surveyed frontline staff, and analysed published data, including CHAIN, to learn more about how people access social housing. We also reviewed the social housing allocation policy of every local authority in England to determine how likely people with a history of rough sleeping are to access social housing in these areas.
Now more than ever, we know the importance of everyone being able to access safe housing. The Government has a unique opportunity to prevent thousands of people from returning to the streets, and part of their response must be to increase the number of social homes being built and ensure the process for accessing social housing doesn’t unfairly, or unnecessarily, penalise people who desperately need to rebuild their lives away from the street.
After all, everyone deserves a home for good.
Click below to read the report in full.
Before the coronavirus pandemic hit the UK, St Mungo’s investigated the experiences of people who have slept rough, and gone on to try and access social housing.
Social housing should provide safe, affordable and secure homes for people who are in the most urgent housing need, but the rate of social house building has slowed dramatically in recent years. As a result the number of new lettings has rapidly declined. All too often, social housing is completely unavailable to those with no other options – because there isn’t enough of it for everyone who needs it.
Before the coronavirus pandemic hit the UK, St Mungo’s investigated the experiences of people who have slept rough, and gone on to try and access social housing. We interviewed clients, surveyed frontline staff, and analysed published data, including CHAIN, to learn more about how people access social housing. We also reviewed the social housing allocation policy of every local authority in England to determine how likely people with a history of rough sleeping are to access social housing in these areas.
Now more than ever, we know the importance of everyone being able to access safe housing. The Government has a unique opportunity to prevent thousands of people from returning to the streets, and part of their response must be to increase the number of social homes being built and ensure the process for accessing social housing doesn’t unfairly, or unnecessarily, penalise people who desperately need to rebuild their lives away from the street.
After all, everyone deserves a home for good.
Click below to read the summary report.
Everyone has the right to a place they call home.
The St Mungo’s Homeless Couples and Relationships Toolkit is the first of its kind. Based on the Couples First research carried out by the Brighton Women’s Centre, it offers pioneering advice for anyone working in the homelessness sector. With support from Tower Hamlets, Mayor of London, City of London, the new toolkit raises awareness of the barriers faced by homeless couples; providing guidance for staff working with couples, requirements for accommodation options for people, and outlining recommendations for supporting couples.
Below is a link to the full toolkit.
St Mungo’s latest research explores the impact of our Housing First services in Brighton and Hove, and Westminster. Our research strengthens the case that Housing First is an effective solution to rough sleeping, but we also know that Housing First works best if the wider environment is right. We will be calling for the new Government to make sure that Housing First is not housing only.
This research was completed in partnership with the University of Salford.
The Government has been asking for views about section 21, or no fault, eviction notices in a consultation. In our response, we describe why we think the Government should remove the option for landlords to use this type of eviction, in order to help people remain in their homes and prevent homelessness. We also outline some of the support that we think should be made available to vulnerable people who are living in the private rented sector.
Section 21 notices allow landlords to evict their tenants with no reason given, and sometimes with little notice. The end of a tenancy is now the biggest cause of statutory homelessness, and we think that landlords should have to give an appropriate reason (such as wanting to move into the property) when they end a tenancy. At St Mungo’s we have been calling for reform to this system since launching our Home for Good campaign in October 2018.
We hope that, following this consultation, the Government will reform the renting system to prevent unfair evictions, and provide vulnerable tenants with the support they need to keep their homes.
Nine years of Government cuts have left a shocking £1bn per year hole in services for single homeless people. At the same time the number of people sleeping rough has soared a massive 165% since 2010. This must end.
New research commissioned by St Mungo’s and Homeless Link and carried out by WPI economics shows that council spending on support for single homeless people in England fell by 53% between 2008-9 and 2017-18. This means that local authorities in England are now spending almost £1bn less a year on these vital homelessness services compared to ten years ago.
Single people and couples without children are the least likely to have a legal right to be housed by their council and so are the most likely to end up sleeping on the streets. Support for this group is crucial to help them find and keep accommodation, and cope with the complex problems that may be contributing to their homelessness, including poor mental health, substance use and domestic abuse.
Everyone deserves a home for good. Our Home for Good campaign is calling on the government to put an end to rough sleeping by ensuring that everyone gets the long-term housing and support they need to rebuild their lives.
St Mungo’s together with Riverside, YMCA and The Salvation Army have released research, which outlines a number of difficulties our residents face when attempting to make and maintain a claim for Universal Credit.
As a coalition of providers responsible for more than a quarter of supported housing for people with experience of homelessness in the UK, we have set out recommendations to government to help improve vulnerable claimants’ experience of Universal Credit in practice.
Conducted by social security experts, Policy in Practice, the findings are based on interviews with people living in supported housing, support workers, benefit and income advisers, and Work Coaches from Jobcentre Plus.
The research found that residents in supported housing often face challenges in adapting to new processes following periods of homelessness, as well as ongoing problems with mental health and substance use.
This report explores Housing First in relation to the evidence base on services designed to end homelessness among single people (i.e. lone adults) with support needs. Some attention is given to prevention and relief services, but this report is concerned with services for those single homeless people who require support as well as housing. The report does not encompass services for homeless families.
The report has four main objectives:
New funding proposals for supported housing put the country’s primary route out of rough sleeping at risk.
This report considers the potential impacts of the proposed new funding system for supported housing on the government’s commitment to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and end it altogether by 2027.
The number of people sleeping rough in England is rising but, despite growing political consensus that the situation is unacceptable, little has been done to protect vital services such as homeless hostels. Previous cuts have already resulted in an 18 per cent reduction in bed spaces between 2010 and 2016. Current proposals would put even more services at risk of closure.
St Mungo’s calls on ministers and MPs to scrap these plans and work with the sector to find a more secure funding system that can meet the needs of the thousands of people sleeping rough in England each night.