Justlife supports people that are living in temporary accommodation in Brighton and Manchester, as well as advocating for people living in temporary accommodation at a national level.
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Simon Gale, CEO, shares about Justlife's commitment to include people with lived experience in their work, helping their voices to be heard by decision makers.
Getting someone off the streets and into temporary accommodation is often seen as a win by the local authority. But people can end up staying in temporary accommodation for a long time which can negatively affect their health and wellbeing. Many people have multiple needs and may be struggling with substance misuse, fleeing domestic violence, or have physical or mental health issues.
We’ve set up an all-party parliamentary group (APPG) with another organisation called Shared Health, where we’ve started meeting with MPs regularly to get the issues surrounding temporary accommodation on the government’s agenda. Having people with lived experience come to the meetings and share their experience and then see some action taken has been really encouraging.
We’re passionate about including people with lived experience in our advocacy work. We want their voices to be heard by decision makers at a national level so that systems can be changed, and people will have access to appropriate accommodation and support.
As a small charity we can’t help everyone individually, but if we can have an impact on systems nationally then we can help make temporary accommodation short, safe and healthy for everyone.
We’ve collected evidence of conditions in temporary accommodation from people with lived experience and presented that to the government, along with our recommendations – for example, guidance around minimum standards for temporary accommodation that we want to be included in bills such as the Renters Reform Bill.
As a result of our advocacy work, temporary accommodation was debated in Parliament for the first time in 2023. Discussions around homelessness have focused on rough sleeping because that's what's most visible, but most people experiencing homelessness are in temporary accommodation and often living in appalling conditions.
It’s amazing what we’ve been able to achieve through the APPG group already, despite being a small charity. Both the Labour Party and the Conservative party have invited us to come and talk to them.
We are using some of the funding from the Foundation to hire an Influencing Coordinator. Having someone dedicated to this role will help us develop our national influencing work and ensure that more people with lived experience are heard by decision makers.
“Being able to talk about my lived experience of ‘the debt trap’ was an opportunity to feel heard for the first time in 15 years. I cannot change my past, but it was empowering to feel that my story can help to support change for my children and future generations.”
Christine was supported by Justlife to give evidence at a special APPG meeting about temporary accommodation which was attended by Felicity Buchan, the Homelessness Minister.
