What is the problem?
Housing inaccessibility and the homelessness trap.
Why this one?
The epitome of inequality. Housing is fundamental in estimating welfare outcomes.
Who is in this space and could partner with?
Changing Lives York provides:
- Community rehabilitation programmes
- Short-term and long-term support (screenings and aftercare)
- One-to-one counselling
- Connecting clients to GPs
What would we do?
We would support a donation towards educating homeless people on housing applications with assistance from building societies. We would also teach legal and financial literacy (such as opening a bank account) through law firms and building societies working alongside law/finance students in York (pro bono).
Owners/leaders of the project?
This project would collaborate with the charity organisers, law/finance students, law firms, York Building Societies, and Laidlaw scholar volunteers.
What is the ask to Lord Laidlaw?
Financial support to the relevant parties and connections in terms of industry-leading legal and financial advisory firms that could offer pro-bono.
“Perfect” LiA looks like:
Laidlaw scholars would volunteer at Changing Lives and set up this subdivision offering legal and financial advice.
Long-term we will expand using connections from the partner-led Yorkshire Alliance Against Homelessness (YAAH). One LiA could scale to many and share the resources we develop with other homeless charities and stakeholders within Yorkshire to scale up and spread the love. Scholars would be spread to different charities and could communicate to share their experience, knowledge and expertise. We would also value to utilise language students in the case of any language barriers.
Possible YAAH connections
- Simon On The Streets
- Emarus Leeds
- Homeless Street Angels
- Leeds City Council (internet access)
- Citizen’s Advice Bureau