We are buzzing to have made the finals of the prestigious London Homelessness Awards 2021.
Our specialist youth homelessness prevention scheme, The Money House, is one of four initiatives selected from 30 organisations in the final straits for a share of £80,000.
One in three care leavers in the UK lose their first home and one in four find themselves homeless once they turn 18.
The Money House targets young adults about to move into social housing in the London boroughs of Greenwich, Newham, Westminster and Haringey. Over a week, trained experts in real flats teach participants everything they need to know to keep their tenancy.
Independent evaluators ERS found participants were three times less likely to have unsustainable arrears and there was a 64% drop in evictions for those ‘at risk’ of losing their home. Since 2013, nearly 4,000 young people have gone through the project and just 1% have been evicted.
This is the 21st anniversary of the awards, which are sponsored by the London Housing Foundation, London Housing Directors, Mayor of London, Crisis and Shelter. This year the awards are run in partnership with the Evening Standard Homeless Fund.
Simon Dow, Chair of the judging panel for the London Homelessness Awards said: “In a strange and uniquely challenging year for the housing and homelessness sector we were very pleased with the number and quality of applications received. Yet again we saw examples of really high quality innovative work being carried out by a wide variety of organisations across London, helping people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. It was as ever very tricky to agree a final six but these projects show real imagination, sustainability and commitment to help reduce homelessness in London.”
You can read about our shortlisting in The Evening Standard and Independent.
The Money House is funded by the Berkeley and JP Morgan Chase Foundations and Pimco. If you would like to refer a young person to this programme, or it’s virtually delivered equivalent, please contact themoneyhouse@mybnk.org.
