London Nightvoucher

Homelessness in London

Prevalence of Homelessness in Greater London. 10,053 people seen rough sleeping in 2022/23 [link].

Night shelters. People who would otherwise sleep on the streets can usually get into night shelters for free, but capacity is limited, sleeping space is shared, some shelters are only open during the winter months and there are eligibility criteria that need to be met. There are currently around 390 winter shelter rooms in London [link].

Hostels and related. Hostels are not always free and may require a referral from a charity, but generally offer more space and independence. This project aims to make it easier to make donations that are directly used for hostels and related type of accommodations. There are currently around 12068 bed spaces in hostels and related temporary accomodations [link].

Project: London Nightvoucher

This project is currently just a rough idea:
example
Accommodation Provider Printed Nightvoucher Website Recipient

Reasoning behind the project

Trusted accommodation providers. Accommodation providers do not need to trust the website, as the received donations indicate a code that can be found on the access website to confirm which donation it links to. The accommodation providers do not receive the access link with the donation, but accommodation providers need to be trusted to provide services that are paid for in the dedicated donation.

Importance of Face-to-Face Interactions. While it is possible to donate directly to somes accommodation providers (e.g., sponsoring young homeless people [link]), both donors and recipients alike deeply benefit from a more human-to-human interaction (moral support and goodwill can go a long way).

Dedicated donations. While giving cash is always a possibility and may be the best choice, accommodation costs for multiple days/weeks/months can be substantial and without knowing the person very well it harbours the risk that the money may be used for things that further the problem rather than helping out of it. Thus, to overcome reluctance on the side of donors (especially for larger sums) and to guide recipients towards accommodation, this project aims to make it easier to make dedicated donations via vouchers.

Intention of the project. It is not meant to solve all problems, but in the best case it may inspire more people to give more money, more money may go towards accommodation and more opportunities may be created for positive interactions; all of which may help a person to find a safe place to sleep and try to find a way out of homelessness. The goal is to keep the project simple enough to not require any donations for the project itself and to only accept volunteer work and partnerships that are directly used towards the project, i.e., anything that could go directly towards providing people with a safe bed should go towards that.

Challenges

There are many (incomplete list):

Some Perspectives from Academic Literature and Policy Reports

Cooper, V., & McCulloch, D. (2023). Homelessness and mortality: an extraordinary or unextraordinary phenomenon?. Mortality, 28(2), 220-235. [link]

Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (2022). Ending Rough Sleeping For Good, September 2022. London: DLUHC. [link]

Centre for social justice (2017). Housing-led solutions to rough sleeping and homelessness. Housing first. [link]

Bowpitt, G., & Kaur, K. (2018). No way out: a study of persistent rough sleeping in Nottingham. [link]

Bramley, G & Fitzpatrick, S 2017, 'Homelessness in the UK: Who is most at risk?', Housing Studies, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 96-116. [link]

Hwang, S. W., & Burns, T. (2014). Health interventions for people who are homeless. The Lancet, 384(9953), 1541-1547. [link]

Fallaize, R., Seale, J. V., Mortin, C., Armstrong, L., & Lovegrove, J. A. (2017). Dietary intake, nutritional status and mental wellbeing of homeless adults in Reading, UK. British Journal of Nutrition, 118(9), 707-714. [link]

Fitzpatrick, S., Bramley, G., & Johnsen, S. (2013). Pathways into multiple exclusion homelessness in seven UK cities. Urban Studies, 50(1), 148-168. [link]

Baxter, A. J., Tweed, E. J., Katikireddi, S. V., & Thomson, H. (2019). Effects of Housing First approaches on health and well-being of adults who are homeless or at risk of homelessness: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. J Epidemiol Community Health, 73(5), 379-387. [link]

Lee, B. A., Tyler, K. A., & Wright, J. D. (2010). The new homelessness revisited. Annual review of sociology, 36, 501-521. [link]

Jones, A., & Pleace, N. (2010). A Review of Single Homelessness in the UK 2000-2010. [link]

Quilgars, D., Johnsen, S., & Pleace, N. (2008). Youth Homelessness in the UK: a Decade of Progress?. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation. [link]

Raoult, D., Foucault, C., & Brouqui, P. (2001). Infections in the homeless. The Lancet infectious diseases, 1(2), 77-84. [link]

About this project

It is currently in its infancy and merely the idea of one computer science researcher (hopefully soon more) who will try their best to make this a reality, but any help would certainly speed up the process and increase chances of success. Thus, do not hesitate to get in touch with michael@nightvoucher.org.uk if you think this project could be helpful. The basic idea is to provide the technical platform first that can be used for dedicated donations before building explicit partnerships with charities.

Note: The views and opinions expressed on this site are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of their employers.