Looking ahead
We are proud of our impact in 2023/24, which would not have been possible without our partners and supporters. But there is still work to be done.
In the next year we will be strategically planning for the next four years alongside people with lived experience of the housing emergency, to guide us towards achieving the goals set out in our current 10 year strategy.
This year there will be a golden opportunity to make an impact with our campaigning. The UK have elected a new government and the first 100 days they are in power are crucial.
We will:
secure concrete actions in the first 100 days that will show that the government is prioritising solving the housing emergency, including (but not limited to) legislation, consultations and white papers
engage key parliamentarians and decision-makers in our policy and funding solutions to the housing emergency
grow the movement by recruiting and mobilising diverse supporters
engage our existing supporters and lived experience campaigners in new actions to pressure the government for commitments
raise awareness of the additional challenges and barriers that Black and communities of colour face in the housing emergency
Our focus going forward
Social homes are the solution
We will continue to fight for the building of more social homes, as we know that this is the solution to the housing emergency and we’ll underpin this with robust evidence.
We have already shown that building 90,000 social rent homes a year for the next 10 years could add £51.2 billion to the economy through our research project with the National Housing Federation.
IKEA has funded Shelter to deliver an ambitious two-year longitudinal research project looking at the impact of moving into a social home. We will reach out to social landlords and bring together evidence from social tenants who have recently moved into a social home.
Standing with communities
Through our national and local services, we'll continue to support people who need our help, while also enacting systemic change to secure rights and improve the system for the future.
We'll find insight into the issues that people need help with, through the support of our partners such as HSBC UK, who are funding financial resilience support to help people impacted by the cost of living crisis.
And through our local services we'll go out into the community, alongside other organisations and groups to better understand and support people with their needs.
Working in partnership
By working together with colleagues across the charity sector, we can achieve greater impacts for homeless people experiencing homelessness.
Funding from Oak Foundation for our Birmingham Homeless Families Project has allowed us to build knowledge and capacity across underrepresented communities. We have created pressure for much-needed changes to the system that is putting so many families at further risk of poor housing and homelessness.
We will work further to find partners who share our vision to end the housing emergency. We are looking forward to working with new partners such as the People's Postcode Lottery, whose funding will help us to achieve our long-term strategic aims.
Your support matters more than ever
At the end of last year we broke yet another appalling record in the housing emergency. Government data showed us that 145,800 children were homeless in temporary accommodation with their families. This is a 15% increase in just one year.
Temporary accommodation was never intended to exist outside of emergencies, but now it is ever-present, with families being kept in poor conditions for periods exceeding the agreed legal limits. Families like Lily's.
Lily is a qualified nurse and, together with her two children, was made homeless when their landlord decided to sell the flat they were renting. They moved into temporary accommodation at the end of 2022, five miles from six-year-old Isiah's school and one- year-old Koby's childminder.
This was a difficult time for the family but Shelter supported them through it. They were living in one room and her eldest would often fall asleep at school, as her youngest would keep him up during the night.
However, last July the family were able to move into a social home in their old area. Lily told us:
'Being in our home is lovely. The best feeling is the security, knowing that we can always go back to the same place. You guys had a massive impact of managing the process of being homeless, the financial and emotional support and also just know the legalities of everything.
I have a quote that my friend gave to me when I was homeless that says "after the storm always comes the rainbow" and my house is my rainbow. We're by school, we've got all the things we need. As I'm speaking Isiah is riding his bike round the garden and that wouldn't have happened a year ago.'
Together with supporters and partners, we will fight the devastating impact the housing emergency is having on families like Lily's.
This content is from our 2023/24 impact report. It covers our work between April 2023 and March 2024, and all information is accurate as of this period.