The Magpie Project: There are 2,000 statutory homeless under-fives in Newham. Rarely street homeless, these families are sofa-surfing, in refuges, or cramped, grubby, inadequate temporary accommodation. They are uniquely vulnerable. Squalid accommodation and destitution make potty training, adequate sleep, play, good diet or exercise impossible to achieve. This plays out in delayed development and trauma. The Magpie Project is a community response to this problem. They believe in safeguarding children and aiding mums during their time without secure housing.
The Passage: Homelessness and modern slavery often go hand in hand. If you are on the streets you are at risk of being targeted by criminals involved in modern slavery; many victims who escape modern slavery end up street homeless and when you’re a victim of modern slavery (even with a roof over your head), you do not have a home. The Passage, who run the largest Resource Centre for homeless people in the UK, are addressing this issue with their Anti-Slavery Project in partnership with homelessness prevention and accommodation schemes.
North London Early Homelessness Prevention Service: An innovative, previously untried model establishing a range of trailblazer intervention projects across 6 North London authorities – as part of testing approaches under the Homelessness Reduction Act. The Service identifies households at early risk of homelessness, taking referrals from key public services.
The King’s Health Partners Pathway Homelessness Team at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust: A specialist inter-professional team, working with inpatients in mental health wards who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. The service improves quality of care, health, housing and wider outcomes for people in a mental health hospital in Lambeth and Southwark.
The Haringey Rough Sleeping Taskforce: A multi-disciplinary collaboration of public, voluntary and community sector services working to tackle the harms of rough sleeping. People focussed, the team prioritises relationships and personalised outcomes, working in partnership to find solutions that help people sustainably exit street homelessness.
SHP’s Sport and Health Project: Ttransforming the lives of homeless and vulnerable people through sport and physical activity. they are working across London with 450 people, including those who are over 55 and homeless, or at risk of homelessness; a group with a unique set of health challenges. The project breaks down the barriers facilitating access into healthcare and sport.