You can read the full version of the March 2025 e-bulletin here.

Our Action Groups and ongoing work

Employment Action Group 
The Employment Action Group met this week at Shoosmiths, Manchester. Thank you to Only a Pavement Away for the introduction. Members networked and learnt about Change Please, a social enterprise who now have a base in Manchester, and who train people experiencing homelessness to become baristas and support them with everything they need to turn their lives around.
Change Please is looking for independent coffee shops to partner with, or organisations that have kitchen space for training sessions. If you would like further information, please email Jake at jake.p@changeplease.org  Organisations in attendance at the meeting included Shelter, Centrepoint, Change Please, Depaul UK, Only a Pavement Away and the Growth Company.

Accommodation Action Group
Collaborative working between MHP members and neighbourhood organisations has seen two insight sessions take place, to better understand the lived experience of individuals and families who are experiencing homelessness, and are living in temporary accommodation in Manchester. The issues identified and the impact on people fall under the following headings:
– Homeless Prevention
– Accommodation Stability
– Accommodation Standards 
– Moving On
The Accommodation Action Group will be sharing these qualitative insights with the Homelessness Directorate at Manchester City Council for feedback, action and collaborative working.

Prevention Action Group
The action group met in March 2025 and received an update from Shelter on the Renters Rights Bill. If you are interested in free training around the Renters Rights Bill or free housing training in general from Shelter, please email louis_basi@shelter.org.uk

Co-production Action Group 
In February 2025, the Co-Production Action Group held an insight session on the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol and provision in Manchester. 20 people attended the session, all of which had either accessed cold weather provision, had been referred via Streetlink/sleep site forms and were not found, or were working to support people to access the provision. Lived experiences were shared and the feedback was reported under the following headings:
– Communication
– Access
– Lived Experience
– Accommodation suitability and move on 
The Co-Production Action Group will be sharing these qualitative insights with the Homelessness Directorate at Manchester City Council for feedback, action and collaborative working.

A Focus On ….. Homelessness isn’t always visible
For too many LGBTQ+ young people, it means sofa surfing, squatting, or staying in unsafe places, with nowhere stable to call home.
LGBTQ+ people are TWICE as likely to experience hidden homelessness.
💭 What does that look like?
🚪 Sleeping on a friend’s couch
🏠 Moving from one temporary place to another
⛺ Squatting because there’s nowhere else to go
🚨 Just because they aren’t counted in official stats doesn’t mean they aren’t at risk. These young people deserve to be seen, heard, and supported.
This is why akt, in partnership with the Universities of Kent, Bristol, and Southampton, has in March 2025, launched the most in-depth study of LGBTQ+ youth homelessness to date. The “There is no place like home” report is out now. Help akt shine a light on this crisis.

Health and Homelessness Report: Helping or Harming? Homelessness and Inclusion Health Barometer 2025 from Pathway – Homeless and Inclusion Health and Crisis This new report from Pathway – Homeless and Inclusion Health and Crisis, lays bare the crisis that continues to push people into vicious cycles of homelessness, poor health and destitution. The report, supported by Specsavers, identifies missed opportunities and unsafe practice across the NHS hitting those most in need. Unsafe practices include poor hospital care and discharges to the street (more than 4,200 last year), leaving people with desperate unmet needs. We can do better than this. Building on the experience and insights of the Pathway Inclusion Health colleagues and the pockets of excellent practice they see around the country, we can all turn the tide on these health inequalities and their contribution to rising homelessness. Crisis and Pathway – Homeless and Inclusion Health are calling on the Government to put healthcare for people facing homelessness and other kinds of social exclusion at the heart of tackling the current health and housing crises. With the Government currently working on a new homelessness strategy and a 10-year plan for the NHS we need to see major reform, which provides people with the safe and secure housing and the accessible healthcare they need.

Understanding HC2 certificates and helping people to apply for one to help with healthcare costs and access Are you a frontline worker in the homelessness sector? Read and share this poster from Groundswell about HC2 certificates for people on no or low income. Are you a service working with people experiencing homelessness? Would you like printed copies of Groundswell’s accessible, coproduced resources? They have 29 health guides developed with, and for, people experiencing homelessness and those supporting them.

Report: How Racism Affects Health – Runnymede Trust 
This new report from the Runnymede Trust with The Health Foundation shows how structural racism operates across the labour market, housing systems and the lived environment, limiting a person’s opportunity to be healthy. A healthy society depends on everyone having the building blocks of good health: secure and decent housing, a good job with enough pay, high quality education and healthy neighbourhoods. These foundations give people a solid frame to withstand life’s shocks and challenges. This report finds unacceptable variations in the experience of the building blocks of health for certain people of colour.
– Approximately 3 in 5 Bangladeshi and Pakistani children, and over half of Black children, live in poverty after housing costs, compared with a quarter of white children. 
– People of colour on average hold far less wealth than White British people and have lower incomes, with 51% of Bangladeshi, 45% of Pakistani and 38% of Black households being in the lowest fifth of the income distribution, compared with 18% of White British households. 
– People of colour are more likely to live in poor-quality, overcrowded, unaffordable homes, particularly in the private rental market, and are more likely to experience homelessness. 
– Communities of colour do not have equal access to a healthy external living environment, such as access to green space and clear air, and are at particular risk of community displacement.

Young People and Homelessness

Blog: Why prevention is the key to tackling youth homelessness
Laura Munt, Director of Prevention and Programmes at Depaul UK shares why prevention can stop homelessness before it begins and can provide stability to young people. 

Sarah’s story and Centrepoint 
Sarah became homeless at 18, after falling out with her mum over finances. She was working as a cleaner and despite already contributing to the household budget, her mum asked her for more money or threatened to throw her out.  
“I became so upset and angry; probably the angriest I’ve ever felt. I told her that I would give her the money if I could see it was going on bills, but she wouldn’t make that promise. I just couldn’t deal with it anymore. I needed to get away from her because living with her was extremely damaging to my mental health. I was scared that I would cause harm to myself or my mum, so I called the police and asked them to come and get me.”
Sarah called the Centrepoint Helpline on 0808 800 0661, who were then able to arrange an assessment with their Homeless Prevention and Relief Service (HPRS) in the North of England. She’s now living in a self-contained flat, where she’s supported by their Floating Support team.
Stories like Sarah’s are often heard on their Helpline, and almost 30,000 young people became homeless last year because their relationships with family and friends broke down. The helpline is open Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm.

Women and Homelessness

Strategy: Women in Prison – Together in Power: A Plan for Real Justice for Women 2025-2030
Women in Prison’s strategy, Together in Power: A Plan for Real Justice for Women 2025-2030, sets out their ambition to build lasting systems change that radically reduces the harm experienced by women in contact with the criminal justice system by 2030.
13 per cent of women were homeless or rough sleeping on release from prison in the year to March 2024 – this statistic is taken from the Ministry of Justice. (2024), Housed on release from custody data tables – Table 4. Offender Accommodation Outcomes, update to March 2024.

Migration and Homelessness

Boaz Trust – Impact of their floating support work 
Over the past couple of months, the Boaz Trust have been encouraged to see the impact of their floating support work has been having on people’s lives. Through the Restricted Eligibility Support Service (RESS), someone they have been supporting was able to submit a fresh claim and access asylum accommodation after a long period of street homelessness. Another elderly person they have been working with has been able to resolve her immigration status and find somewhere safe to live. Their Refugee Homelessness Prevention Project continues to support people newly granted refugee status to access their own private rented accommodation. Recently, the team supported someone who had previously been sofa surfing to find a room to rent in north Manchester, and helped her access funding to secure her deposit payment.

Housing Guide – A guide to help you find a place to live after you’ve been granted refugee status
This new guide from the Boaz Trust contains useful advice and information about the steps that someone needs to take once they get a positive asylum decision, including information on council homelessness support and looking for private rented accommodation. Please share the link with people you’re supporting or use it as a guide to help you provide housing advice and support to new refugees.

Blogs, Guidance, Policies, Polls, Reports and Videos

Statistics: Rough sleeping snapshot in England: autumn 2024
Statistical release about the annual single night snapshot of the number of people sleeping rough in local authorities across England. This was published on 27 February 2025. There are now 126,040 homeless households living in temporary accommodation in England, and 164,040 children (July-Sep 2024).
Press Release: Shelter calls on Government to invest in 90,000 social homes a year in upcoming Spending Review to end homelessness for good
650 social homes lost in England last year, while 1.3m households are stuck on waiting lists. Read the full press release here. 
Report: Global-first systems analysis calls for switch to homelessness prevention
This evaluation report from the Centre for Homelessness Impact has uncovered significant barriers, including fragmentation, overlapping funding streams and misalignment with policies across various government departments and their partners. While this is complex, challenging work – especially when trying to determine cause and effect within interconnected systems – the insights gained are already driving positive change within government. The Systems-wide Evaluation of the homelessness and rough sleeping system was led by the Centre for Homelessness Impact, and their delivery partners Cordis Bright and RSM UK Consulting, commissioned by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Activities, Resources, Services and Training
CGL  – Training for professionals and communities
Training provided by their Adult Service
– Alcohol and Drug Awareness
– Introduction to CGL (service-wide presentation)
– Harm Reduction Training
– Naloxone and Overdose prevention
– Introduction to anabolic steroids
– New Synthetic Opioids Briefing 
Click here for further information and booking 

Training provided by Eclypse – Young Persons Service
– Emerging Substances and Trends
– Vaping
– Hidden Harm
– County Lines
– Exploitation (young people)Click here for further information and booking