Crisis

Our Head of Campaigns and Policy Jasmine Basran took part in today's Money Box program on Radio 4. This looked at the current state of social housing in the UK and the harrowing challenges faced by families trying to get access to housing they can afford. You can hear the full program here: https://lnkd.in/eUHJGYMa

From Crisis Skylight to the limelight⭐ Find out what happened when Crisis members - who are all experiencing homelessness - were invited to create music with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Share this video to spread some joy!🔃 Thank you to Scops Art Trust for their generous funding of this amazing project and to the Southbank Centre for having us!

Landlords – are you looking for long-term reliable tenants, for free? Do you want to be a part of ending homelessness? Crisis is ready to work with you. Find out more about our services for landlords: https://bit.ly/3G3jtNV

📊 Typical rent for a one-bed flat in Croydon: £1,350  🏠 Housing benefits: £950    See the problem? So did everyone we spoke to.    This issue isn’t isolated. Across the country, housing benefit doesn’t even cover rent and is now frozen until at least 2026.     This is pushing more people towards homelessness.      But we can change this. Email your MP and ask them to support restoring housing benefits to match the true cost of rent: https://bit.ly/4hTubni   🎥: Vox Pops International

Last week we welcomed the Scottish Government's Director-General Communities, Louise Macdonald, to our Edinburgh Skylight. It was a great chance to meet some of our members, hear about our front-line work & discuss the wider changes needed to end homelessness altogether 🏡 Thank you for visiting, Louise!

The #HomelessnessMonitorWales is out today. It reveals that rates of homelessness in Wales have risen more sharply than in Scotland or England. The report by researchers at Heriot-Watt University’s Institute for Social Policy, Housing, Equalities Research (I-SPHERE), projects core homelessness could rise by a further 24% by 2041 if there are no changes to government policies. If we want to stop more people being forced into homelessness in Wales, the Welsh Government must press ahead with commitments to building more social homes and changing the law to stop people becoming homeless in the first place. Crisis works across Great Britain to end homelessness in all its forms. Our Homelessness Monitor reports offer an in-depth look at the situation in each country – Wales, Scotland, and England. Housing policy in Wales is devolved to the Welsh Government, though our report looks at the wider context too. https://lnkd.in/eDjZrFW3

📣 CALLING ALL CRISIS VOLUNTEERS! You are critical to our work. None of it would be possible without your compassion, time and energy. We’re now embarking on our new 10-year mission and strategy to end homelessness and we're reaching out to as many Crisis volunteers as possible. We have been working on transforming volunteering and lived experience and we would like to share with you the next steps for this project and give you an opportunity to ask questions. Whether you've been involved at Christmas, in our Skylights or at the shops, your views are important. We know from experience that our volunteers are brimming with enthusiasm as well as great ideas so we can't wait to hear from you! Get more information and sign up for the online Q&As here: 7th May - https://bit.ly/4cuKdmI 17th May - https://bit.ly/4cnfBmW

Every few weeks, our social team gets a diary reminder to tell more people about the Renting Ready Courses. And then we realise that our fantastic sector clients are already doing it for us! Renting Ready courses have helped put many of our members on a firmer footing when they move into their new homes. That's why we're trying to make them available more widely and are also offering Train the Trainer courses. If you think either of these courses could help you or the people you support, our team have more info and would love to hear from you: housing.trainer@crisis.org.uk

🚨BREAKING NEWS: The wait for a family-sized social home is over 100 years in parts of England. New analysis by Crisis, the National Housing Federation (NHF) and Shelter found that in 32 local authority areas across England, the wait for a home with at least three bedrooms is longer than 18 years – the duration of an entire childhood. This is forcing families to live in overcrowded conditions, unaffordable and insecure private rented homes or in the worst cases, pushing them into homelessness. No one should face this. In the worst-affected councils, all in London, the wait is more than a century. And in nine more local authorities, it's over 50 years. THIS. IS. OUTRAGEOUS. A safe, stable home is the foundation for a healthy life, but our severe shortage of social homes is failing families and children across the country. To fix this, the UK Government must build more social homes, fix our support systems and prevent homelessness before it starts. ✍️ Join us and sign our open letter to Keir Starmer: https://bit.ly/41LxSWa

🏠 Right now, millions of us are struggling to afford a safe home. Yesterday, we presented new analysis to MPs, at an event chaired by Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG) Select Committee Chair Florence Eshalomi MP. Our analysis with Zoopla shows that fewer than 3 in 100 private rented homes are affordable for those who rely on housing benefits. We called on them to take immediate action to change this. The Government’s decision to freeze Local Housing Allowance (used to calculate housing benefit) until at least 2026 is making it harder for people to afford their rents. This will push people deeper into poverty and towards homelessness. As the HCLG Committee reported just last week, re-freezing housing benefit is a false economy. But it doesn’t have to be this way. If the UK Government is serious about ending homelessness, they must restore housing benefits to match the real cost of rents. Doing so will: ✅ Help everyone afford to stay in their homes ✅ Reduce poverty ✅ Improve mental & physical health ✅ Be a critical step in ending homelessness 📝Take action now: Email your MP today and urge them to support restoring housing benefits to match the true cost of rent https://bit.ly/4hTubni Special thanks to Zoopla, Newcastle City Council, IPPR, and Ahmed from our Lived Experience Advisory Panel for their contributions, and to Health Equals for supporting this work.