More people are experiencing homelessness in Westminster than in any other part of the UK. The pandemic created a unique opportunity for The Passage and others to come together to address the varied and complex issues of rough sleeping. We understand many people need support in other areas for them to be able to maintain safe and sustainable accommodation. We know it takes more than a house to make a home.

Our new strategy will ensure that we not only provide people with a roof over their head, but a tailored plan to help them sustain safe accommodation and become part of a community. Our vision is of a society where street homelessness no longer exists and where everyone has a place to call home.

During the pandemic, for the first time in many years, rough sleeping was dramatically reduced. It reaffirmed our belief that when we are open to changing the way we do things and working collaboratively, street homelessness can indeed be ended for good.

Because of this, we were in a position to test out innovative new approaches to how we run our services in response to the changing needs of our clients. These approaches have now been widely adopted within The Passage and form the foundations of our new strategy, No Going Back.

No Going Back includes five strategic goals – these are Prevention, Progression, Collaboration, Quality and Resilience. This means that our services will expand to offer a wide range of support in areas such as mental health, substance misuse and addictions, modern slavery, and training and development. This wrap-around support will ensure the route off the streets is sustainable, and everyone has a safe, stable and happy life.

Over the next three years, we will ensure that people with lived experiences of homelessness are engaged in the rollout of this strategy and involved in key aspects of our decision making. This means everything from the design, delivery and evaluation of our services to our influencing and advocacy work will be informed by people we have supported on their journey to finding a home.

As we are learning to live with the pandemic, we’re now faced with new challenges in our society.

Our CEO, Mick Clare, said this,

“We anticipate that the imminent rise in the cost of living will put many people at risk of street homelessness, leading to increased pressure on our services. Also, as an organisation leading pioneering work on the ground addressing the links between homelessness and modern slavery, we have real concerns about the terrible situation in Ukraine as very often conflict and human trafficking are connected. The Passage and others like us are doing all we can to raise our deep concerns and offer practical solutions.

Whatever the future brings, we are determined that we will be ready to prevent homelessness happening in the first place and to respond quickly to help move people off the streets into safe and stable accommodation. To ensure that we can continue this work throughout the year, we have launched our latest campaign to raise £500,000 in partnership with the Big Give https://donate.thebiggive.org.uk/campaign/a056900002EIIIqAAP.

Please donate if you can. All donations will be matched.

Street homelessness should not exist in 21st century Britain. We can all play a role in the fight to end it, and we hope that you will be inspired to join us in achieving this vision. Together we can make sure that everyone has a place to call home.”

To find out more about our work, visit: https://passage.org.uk/.