How can homelessness prevention funding be most effective?

Understandably, the generational investment in housebuilding – £39bn over 10 years – led the day. This is fair enough: the level of spending is larger; the impact on the public is greater; and, as has become clear in recent years, the homelessness crisis sits downstream from the housing crisis.

Beyond the headlines and big-ticket items, though, the chancellor also revealed that £100m would be set aside for homelessness prevention. Perhaps a small amount of money in government terms – but its impact could be huge and far-reaching.

Over the past half-decade or so, successive governments have ploughed billions into helping people sleeping rough and others at the sharpest end of the crisis that has, despite best intentions, done little to stop increasing numbers finding themselves in need of that support.

That is what sets this latest intervention apart.

Rather than funnelling money towards the most visible problem area, ministers seem to have recognised that they need to tackle the whole problem at once. This is a real step change.

After the dust of the Spending Review has settled and while we wait for the substance of the government’s ending homelessness strategy, one question remains: how can this money be spent most effectively?

Any prevention funding would, of course, need to support councils and charities as they try to pull people away from crisis – but there is a good argument for thinking broadly, and into the medium and long term, and investing it in people not yet at that point of crisis.

Indeed, preventing young people becoming homeless in the first place could have the most impact.

Putting aside the increasing number of young people seen sleeping rough and those asking their councils for support, at Centrepoint, we have also seen some promising developments in schools. 

Over the past few years, we have piloted a programme of in-school prevention, Upstream, in England. The project was brought to the UK by Welsh charity Llamau, following its success in the form of the Geelong Project in Australia, and it now operates across the UK.

The early signs are encouraging – and we think there’s a strong case for investment. These programmes use a survey to identify students at risk of homelessness and then, working in partnership with other organisations, deliver a series of interventions including family mediation and homelessness prevention advice.   

Our work is being monitored by independent experts – and the early signs are that the pilot appears to be identifying young people at risk, and a forthcoming evaluation will help to establish its success in preventing homelessness. 

“Where more support is needed, investment in family mediation and other conflict resolution models to reduce the risk of family breakdown – which we know is a key driver of youth homelessness – would have significant impact, too”

Initiatives such as the Upstream survey help to identify school-age children who are at risk of homelessness – and homelessness specialists, based in schools, are well-placed to support those students the survey identifies.   

Where more support is needed, investment in family mediation and other conflict resolution models to reduce the risk of family breakdown – which we know is a key driver of youth homelessness – would have significant impact, too. 

The government committed to some of this in the Spending Review. Alongside around £1bn for supporting children in care, the chancellor promised to expand the Family Hubs programme and recruit mental health support teams in every English school, and provided certainty that the Families First Partnership Programme will continue to run. 

As a charity campaigning for and supporting vulnerable people, so much of our work in recent years has been about lifting those we can out of crisis against a tide of demand we simply cannot keep up with, let alone reduce.

One announcement of £100m won’t change that overnight. But the shift could be significant over time. 

Making space for the scale of the problem, by investing in both reducing the demand and increasing the supply of support, is the smart move. In that respect at least, the tea leaves suggest the government’s ending homelessness strategy is heading in the right direction.

Stephen Elder, national prevention manager, Centrepoint