The borough of Westminster has the highest levels of homelessness in England. As an institution, King’s College has a funding requirement that they’re a good civil institution. We helped them figure out how they could use the knowledge and networks they have to tackle this issue.

Firstly, we helped them listen to people on the frontline. Using our housing campaigners’ networks and our links to local authorities and homeless charities, we ran in-depth interviews, workshops and surveys with the London homelessness sector to understand how King’s might be able to help.

King’s wanted a strategy that fitted in with the sector, consulted people, and was well thought through. They parked their ego and wanted to listen to people on the ground to understand how they could help. They wanted to be led by the experts and open themselves up to non-academic experts. They wanted to be led by the community and the practitioners that are in it day in and day out.

This helped us establish a number of recommendations for their work, including but not limited to researching the economics of homelessness and establishing a commissioners’ network.

King’s now has a strategy in place, and we’re working to help King’s execute this strategy. The impact of this work could be transformational. Channeling the resources of an institution like King’s has the potential to bring a step-change in our efforts to address the homelessness crisis.

(Photo by Tom Parsons on Unsplash)