START Homeless Outreach Service wins Prestigious London Homelessness Award for 2023

The 2023 award winners

First Prize (£25,000) - SLAM START Homeless Outreach Services

START is a tri-borough multidisciplinary statutory service for homeless clients rough sleeping or in hostels. They provide mental health and dual diagnosis outreach delivered in a way that prioritises relational care and engagement, working with clients across transitions, from street to housing to recovery, and offering treatment and interventions across psychiatry, psychology, nursing, social work, occupational therapy and peer support. The team also work to support third sector partners, providing education, advocacy, and guidance with complex cases.

Second Prize (£15,000) – London Borough of Enfield

The Somewhere Safe to Stay Hub is a 12-bed rapid assessment and resettlement service that provides housing and intensive 24/7 support to people experiencing rough sleeping. Situated in Edmonton, the hub enables direct access to safe off the street accommodation to outreach workers, providing both rapid assessment of need and rehousing. The Hub provides a base for partner agencies to provide a wide range of specialist support to meet the needs of rough sleepers such as health care, drug and alcohol support, and VSOs.

Joint Third Prize (£10,000) – Bromley and Croydon Women’s Aid

For those made homeless by domestic abuse, the path to stable accommodation is not easy, and often depends on the inconsistent response of local housing teams. Sadly, only a very small proportion of refuges (around 4%) are able to accept families with no access to public funds. Launched in 2013, Bromley & Croydon Women’s Aid’s Safe Beds Scheme allows Local Authorities to place families quickly in refuge, including those with no recourse to public funds. This enables the charity to help women in distress who do not qualify for the normal support mechanisms put in place for victims of domestic abuse.

Find out how they announced the news to their supporters here.

Joint Third Prize (£10,000) – The St Mungos Roma Rough Sleeping team

St Mungos is a Pan London service funded by the GLA through the Rough Sleeper initiative with the aim of challenging discrimination and demonstrating it is possible to deliver sustainable homelessness interventions for people from the Roma community. It has three Roma mediators and a Roma coordinator and Service Manager who provide culturally competent casework management and promote equal access to support. The service is delivered in partnership with The Passage, which provides immigration advice and employment support that meets the specific needs of Roma clients.

Other Highly Commended Projects

Beam: Beam is a platform supporting homeless people and refugees into stable jobs and homes. Through their unique crowdfunding platform, they help disadvantaged communities raise funding for job training, work tools, rental deposits, and other ﬁnancial costs related to ﬁnding a job or home. Donations come from members of the public, who get updates on the people they support and can leave messages of encouragement. Each beneﬁciary also gets a dedicated Beam caseworker to support them on their journey into a stable job or home, and helps with CV writing, interview skills, online job applications, and tenancy training.

Change Please: Driving for Change: Driving for Change is a ground-breaking initiative, bringing together the best of the public, voluntary and commercial sectors. Launched in November 2021 with the support of the Mayor of London, there are now three state-of-the-art refurbished buses delivering vital services to London’s Rough Sleeping and Homeless Communities, including: NHS nurse consultations, oral hygiene support and care, haircuts, digital and financial literacy training, employment support, shower facilities, therapy assessments, laundry services and essential everyday items.