Overview
How do we make a Wales where homelessness is rare, brief and unrepeated? This important question drives our research under this thematic area. We will explore opportunities for more timely interventions, and produce an evidence base on what works to prevent homelessness, for whom and in what context.
We recognise that homelessness is often the outcome of housing which is insecure, physically inadequate or lacks privacy. Our research will therefore touch upon wider housing related issues, such as those related to housing (in)affordability, which itself leads to housing insecurity.
Additionally, a large part of our work will be to collaborate with the homelessness policy team in Welsh Government and the wider housing-support related sector in Wales, to improve local authority homelessness data collection and to deposit historic data in the SAIL Databank to facilitate linkage-based research.
Working alongside peers from the Centre for Homelessness Impact, the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE) and the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research Data and Methods (WISERD), and Welsh Government policy teams, ensures that our research will have greater relevance and impact on the work of the housing-related sector in Wales and the wider UK.
Priorities
Our work in this research area is guided by government’s high level action plan published in 2021 to achieve a Wales where homelessness is rare, brief, and unrepeated. We are also guided by the recognition that homelessness is often the outcome of housing which is insecure, poor quality, and unaffordable, and in order to address homelessness, we must therefore address wider housing related issues.
A large part of our work will be to collaborate with the homelessness policy team in Welsh Government and the wider housing-support related sector in Wales, in order to improve local authority homelessness data collection and to deposit historic data in the SAIL Databank to facilitate linkage-based research.
We will provide evidence of the impacts of homelessness and housing insecurity on a range of outcomes, including use of healthcare services and substance misuse treatment.
We will further the aims of government to increase homelessness prevention by providing evidence on what local authority actions work in ending and preventing returns to homelessness, and for which groups of people.
Our work will contribute to the ‘rapid rehousing’ agenda in Wales, as outlined in the Programme for Government, by exploring how long it currently takes to rehouse people experiencing homelessness, whether providing people with settled accommodation quickly leads to stable long-term housing outcomes, and if a benchmark can be created in terms of how rapidly people should be rehoused.
Through linkage between data sources from otherwise distinct policy areas, we will explore the extent to which homelessness overlaps with other forms of severe disadvantage such as mental health issues, substance use, alcohol dependency, and interactions with the criminal justice system. By combining data from across policy areas, we will also engage in research demonstrating the potential impact improved cross-sector working can have on homelessness (and wider) prevention efforts. For example, we will explore whether interactions with the police can be used as a signal for the early identification of people approaching local authority housing teams because of domestic violence.
We will look at rental markets and affordability, including the private rental sector in Wales, local housing allowance rates, and housing benefits.
We will continue work begun under ADR Wales 2019-21 into the impact of Covid-19 on the homeless population in Wales, including the uptake of the Covid-19 vaccination.
We recognise that our work on homelessness and housing will intersect with many of the thematic research areas, particularly those of well-being and social justice, and will work collaboratively where appropriate and beneficial to the impact of our work.
Projects
Housing pathways of young people in the UK
This project aims to identify patterns of housing consumption over time, among a cohort of young people. It will compare its findings to a study conducted a decade ago, and highlight any potential changes in young people’s housing between the two time-periods.
COVID-19 vaccinations among people experiencing homelessness in Wales
This project aims to provide evidence related to the coverage and timeliness of COVID-19 vaccinations among people experiencing homelessness in Wales, with the aim of monitoring vaccine equality.
It will look at what proportion of people experiencing homelessness in Wales were vaccinated a year into the vaccine programme, and how vaccine coverage changed over time.
Severe Multiple Disadvantage in Wales
Following on from work already carried out in England and Scotland, this project will provide evidence on the extent of severe multiple disadvantage in Wales.
It will investigate to what extent severe disadvantages such as homelessness, mental health issues, substance use, alcohol dependency, and interactions with the criminal justice system, overlap amongst people in Wales.
Does rehousing people quickly lead to more stable housing outcomes?
This project will provide evidence on ‘rapid rehousing’ in homelessness services—an approach based on the idea that rehousing people experiencing homelessness quickly reduces negative outcomes. It will investigate if the amount of time it takes to rehouse people experiencing homelessness differs between population subgroups, and whether the time taken to rehouse someone is associated with their housing stability.
The findings will inform future work to create a ‘rapid rehousing’ benchmark. The benchmark aims to identify at which point a household’s chances of experiencing homelessness again are reduced.
Publications
Report: Supporting People data linking project: update
This project follows on from, and is informed by, the Supporting People data linking feasibility study and Supporting People data linking emerging findings report, using legacy Supporting People data from five local authorities in Wales (from 2003 to 2020). The Supporting People programme was replaced by the Housing Support Grant in 2019.
This report analyses the demographics of Supporting People to understand who received support from the programme. In addition, it outlines findings from analysis that linked Supporting People data with healthcare data in the SAIL databank to understand the healthcare utilisation of Supporting People clients before and after they received support.