Helping End Homelessness will award grants to strategic projects that operate across one or more local authority areas in urban and rural settings that seek to redesign services to make homelessness rare, brief and non-recurrent.

They will be person-centred and delivered by multi-agency partnerships where third sector and public sector organisations work closely together, based on a mutually agreed vision for tackling homelessness.

Homelessness can affect anyone and be caused by a variety of factors. They have defined homelessness as ‘not having a home’. A person is homeless if they are:

• sleeping rough
• staying with friends or family
• staying in a hostel, night shelter or B&B
• squatting (because someone has no legal right to stay)
• being at risk of violence or abuse in their home
• living in poor conditions that affect their health
• living apart from their family because they don't have a place to live together.

The National Lottery Community Fund encourages applicants to consider specific priorities to focus their projects on including service innovation, person-centred support, supporting tenants and landlords in the private rented sector, homelessness prevention, trauma informed environments, reducing discrimination and prejudice, and rural homelessness. The voices of those affected by homelessness will be at the centre of those projects. Projects will:

• balance preventative and responsive approaches within a psychologically informed environment.
• provide tenant support (particularly within the private rented sector),
• and address the stigma and prejudice experienced by people who are homeless.

Funding Information

Total available: £10 million

Eligibility Criteria

While this list is not exhaustive, they would anticipate the following types of organisation being involved as partners:

• Established local third sector organisations with experience of delivering homelessness services
• Health services
• Local authorities
• Private rented sector
• Housing associations
• Smaller third sector organisations with relevant expertise
• Probation Service
• Police
• Secure Estate
• BAME organisations
• LGBT organisations
• Social enterprises with relevant expertise
• Mental Health services
• Religious organisations/places of worship
• Academic or research institutions

For more information, visit Community Fund.