Great Yarmouth: working together to tackle homelessness
We are supporting local people, groups and organisations in Great Yarmouth to collaboratively develop community-based, sustainable solutions to homelessness.
This work is a collaboration between Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales and local organisations, groups and people within the community of Great Yarmouth. At the Foundation, we want to help create sustainable change within communities, and for this work to ultimately be completely locally owned. Throughout this page, the use of ‘we’ refers to the partnership working between the Foundation and the local community in developing this work so far.
How we got here
Great Yarmouth has seen increasing numbers of people experiencing homelessness. During the Covid-19 pandemic, local authorities, charities, community groups and other organisations had to work together to coordinate resources, provide temporary shelters and adapt support services to be delivered remotely. This provided a unique opportunity for organisations to collaborate and start to explore community-based solutions to homelessness.
There was an urgency in the community to address homelessness as a public health and social concern. To do this effectively, there needs to be ongoing collaboration between organisations, alongside investment in affordable housing and support services. To support this, the Foundation is investing in long term collaborative work and helping to facilitate a community-wide response to homelessness, including funding the position of a Local Implementation Lead, Dan Hastings from Procommunity CIC. This has led to the development of the Great Yarmouth Homeless Alliance, a partnership of local public and private sector organisations and groups, as well as people with lived experience, who are working together to tackle homelessness.
The vision
The vision of the Great Yarmouth Homeless Alliance is for everyone in the local community to have access to safe and stable housing, and for homelessness to be rare, brief, and not reoccurring.
We aim to achieve this by encouraging and facilitating collaboration among local authorities, local organisations, and community members to provide comprehensive support services to people experiencing homelessness.
We also want to better understand and raise awareness of the root causes of homelessness, advocate for policy changes and ensure resources are being dedicated to addressing these issues effectively.
An illustrated graphic showing the journey of the collaborative work so far, including some of the experiences shared by local people with lived experience of homelessness.
Who is involved
The Great Yarmouth Homeless Alliance brings together an ever-growing number of diverse representatives from across the local community. This includes small and crucial voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations such as:
• Herring House Trust
• DIAL Great Yarmouth
• Feathers Futures
• The Benjamin Foundation
The Alliance is also partnering with public sector organisations including DWP, Great Yarmouth Borough Council, Norfolk Constabulary and Norfolk County Council.
Progress so far
A key focus of the work has been understanding how the homelessness system looks and feels for people who are navigating it so that improvements can be made.
We designed and carried out a piece of research on people’s lived experience of homelessness in Great Yarmouth, told in their own words. The research explored what pushes people into homelessness in the first place, understanding how this is often a result of poverty, lack of safety nets or adequate support to deal with trauma and mental health challenges.
The research has provided insights into how difficult it is for people facing homelessness to access support, the challenges of being ‘in the system’, and what helped people to move on from homelessness. It will inform the development of policies, programmes and initiatives aimed at preventing homelessness and supporting people currently experiencing homelessness.
The research has helped the Alliance identify five areas to act on:
- Develop better communications to make it easier for people to understand the support available to them and how to access it.
- Improve outreach services to bring people off the streets as quickly as possible.
- Redesign pathways and join up services so that people can quickly get the support they need.
- Provide personalised support that addresses all relevant aspects of a person’s life.
- Adopt an empathetic and relational approach to supporting people experiencing homelessness.
As a longer-term ambition, the Alliance is also exploring models of financing and delivering housing in a sustainable, affordable and inclusive way.
“It was fantastic to have the opportunity to be part of the research team and to give people experiencing homelessness in Great Yarmouth the chance to share their stories. We all have past experiences of being homeless, so we wanted to give back to the community that has helped us."
- feedback from people with lived experience of homelessness on their involvement in the Alliance and the research project.
"Being part of the research team has given us the chance to have our voices heard, to learn more about ourselves and to be more confident in what we can do. We all feel more valued now and have been inspired to go on and do our own research. Our ultimate goal is to try to eradicate homelessness, but if we can make a difference to one person’s life on the way, then it will have been worth it."
- feedback from people with lived experience of homelessness on their involvement in the Alliance and the research project.
Get involved
If you’d like to find out more, or get involved with our work in Great Yarmouth, please email us at greatyarmouthcommunities@lloydsbankfoundation.org.uk
