How councils, housing associations and utilities can help to prevent homelessness

Our latest report, Reverse Engineering Homelessness, reveals how you can support your residents and customers and ultimately help to prevent homelessness.

We conducted in-depth interviews with 10 residents who were homeless and living in temporary accommodation. Participants were asked to share their journey to homelessness and any times where, with hindsight, they think things could have helped to prevent their current situation.

It identifies 8 key action points that could help people before they’re faced with homelessness.

Financial Intervention

The obvious one, mentioned by all 10 interviewees. But the key context of financial intervention was that it needed to be early and include education on finance, savings and bills, rather than just as a temporary sticking plaster.

Sarah: “I wish I’d been educated more on what debt meant… I was young and stupid, I just thought debt was free money.”

“Rachel moved into temporary accommodation as a dyslexic and autistic 23-year-old, no one helped to explain how bills worked.”

Action point for councils and housing associations. Ensure new social housing tenants and temporary accommodation tenants have officer time dedicated to explaining how bills, council tax and benefits applications work and what is needed for each individual’s circumstances.

Action point for all service providers. Offer financial support through care schemes for struggling customers (many utilities etc already offer this). Also consider offering free financial education, incentivised with bill discounts or other benefits to ensure take-up.

Employment & Education Intervention

Several interviewees mentioned having the skills and qualifications to work, but struggling with applications and CVs meant they missed opportunities and got stuck in short-term, low paid roles. Others recalled that difficulties during their school years had left them without qualifications and unsure where to turn.

Ali: “I was never offered much help with job applications, writing CVs, or anything like that.”

James: “With the new baby, redundancy and eviction, I just needed more help & direction.”

Action point for housing associations. Life skills training courses to include support finding further education or adult education courses, support applying for funded education and application/CV workshops for adult and young adult residents.

Action point for councils. Targeted intervention with children experiencing mental health struggles and/or difficult family life, continuing post-education to ensure support finding work.

Mental Health and Substance Abuse Intervention

80% of interviewees mentioned mental health issues impacting their lives, particularly through anxiety and depression. Half have struggled with substance abuse.

Molly: “No one ever asked about my mental health or drinking problems.”

“Anna suffered an abusive childhood which led to severe mental health issues such as panic attacks, anxiety and eating disorders… She wishes someone helped her before it got worse.”

Action point for councils and housing associations. Include mental health checks and support as part of temporary accommodation and social housing inductions. Offer these as digital as well as face-to-face services so residents can disclose in the way they feel most comfortable.

Action point for all service providers. Touch points such as arrears, missed payments, requests for additional support should be used as an opportunity to also check and support the individual’s mental health.

Domestic Abuse Intervention

30% of interviewees had experienced domestic abuse, they recalled that they didn’t know the early warning signs or where to turn for help.

Anna: “I didn’t understand that I was being mentally abused… I didn’t see the signs”

Molly: “No one asked me about the abuse or my mental health, so I didn’t tell them”

Action point for all service providers. Ensure contact staff are trained to spot signs of domestic abuse. Have a detailed plan in place for support if an individual discloses suffering from or committing domestic abuse.

Action point for councils and housing associations. Specialist targeted interventions with children exposed to domestic abuse to prevent normalisation of abuse, drive awareness and support mental health.

How to identify people at risk of homelessness

We were able to create this report following a project with Adur and Worthing Council, sending a wellbeing check to residents already in temporary accommodation, who were able to discuss their journey with hindsight. But how can you identify those at risk and aim to prevent homelessness?

Look for early signs as mentioned above – missed bills, increasing arrears and applications for benefits or support. Sometimes a customer will tell you that they’re struggling because they lost their job, in which case you can start by offering any support related to applications and CV writing, budgeting etc., other times you’ll need to look at your customer data to identify those at risk.

This is where a digital wellbeing check can help you fill in the gaps and reveal a 360-degree view of a customer’s struggles. Everything from current mental health, home life, addictions, physical and financial health. It’s a series of simple yes/no questions on their smartphone and is fully consent driven so the customer is in full control of the data they disclose.

The customer receives personalised signposts to support, and the organisation can see where else they can support that customer and any patterns within customer groups where new support can be introduced.

About us

We’re a certified B Corp and our mission is to help organisations prevent homelessness through technology. To benefit both customer and the organisation.

Drop us a line if you’d like to discuss supporting your customers and residents with a wellbeing check. Contact us

If you’d like a copy of the full Reverse Engineering Homelessness report featuring the 10 in-depth individual timelines, simply request one here.