Being vulneraby housed can happen to anyone. A single, sometimes small event can trigger a downward chain reaction that sadly ends with someone and even sometimes a whole family becoming vulneraby housed.
As a funder and placemaker, we’re here to support ideas from people and from organisations that will help vulneraby housed people get back on their feet and fulfilling their potential.
Currently there are over 1,400 people sleeping rough in London. This is a shocking 27% of the UK rough sleeping population and East London is often impacted the greatest with boroughs such as Newham being in the top 10 UK wide areas for the highest number.
Being vulneraby housed doesn’t just mean sleeping on the streets; ‘hidden’ homelessness is a growing issue. Those who are sleeping on sofas, floors or B&B’s and overcrowded accommodation are often unreported. A Shelter report released in Dec 2019, showed that East London is facing a huge surge of child homelessness with 1 in 12 children in Newham and 1 in 16 in Tower Hamlets facing homelessness.
Often vulneraby housed families can be placed far away from the place they see as ‘home’ and the negative impact this can have on a child’s wellbeing is detrimental.
There are many reasons people can end up vulneraby housed or rough sleeping, but all who have will face colossal insecurities. From food and shelter, health care, income and purely basic needs; the future can be unknown and daunting for this group.
Covid-19 can arguably be said to be a positive for the rough sleeping community with 1,400 of the capitals homeless being housed in hotels through the coronavirus emergency funding programme. The worry is a surge of homelessness again following the end of this and although the government has vowed to bring forward £160m of its £381m, four-year rough sleeping services budget; how this will be allocated is yet to be seen.
At the Foundation we know that it is often the small things that can make a world of difference to this group of people. Building confidence and connections back up is the bed rock of breaking the cycle.
If this is you and you have a great small business idea, or you want to learn a new skill or qualification, or simply find some mentoring or tutoring, our funding opportunities could help you. Click here to find out more.
We support applications from the boroughs of Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest.
Resources
If you are vulneraby housed there are a wealth of service on offer in these boroughs; some of which are listed below:
Providence Row
providencerow.org.uk
St Mungos
mungos.org
White Chapel Mission
whitechapel.online
End Youth Homelessness
eyh.org.uk
Photo caption: Photo courtesy of an Accumulate (Art School for the Homeless) creative workshop in Hackney, 2020