Homelessness has sharply increased over the last 10 years, and the Boroughs of Westminster and Camden have the highest homeless population in London. The LSE Homelessness Initiative (LSEHI) was formed to respond to this crisis with our most effective tools and increase understanding of the issue across the scool. Following a motion passed in 2020 by the Students’ Union, the School and the LSESU also partnered with St Mungo’s (2020-21), one of the country’s leading charities on homelessness.
After running in partnership with St Mungo’s for the first two years, LSEHI continues to bring together students and staff from across the School to raise awareness, provide information and organise volunteering and fundraising opportunities.
Among other things, the partnership provided training for LSE Security staff on how to best engage with rough sleepers on campus. All members of our community, however, can play a part in providing support.
The LSEHI Activity Fund:
We're proud to announce the launch of our new activity fund - members of our staff and student community can submit their idea for a project focused on understanding and tackling homelessness and recieve up to £3,000 in funding. To find out more, click here.
How you can help:
If you see someone you think is in danger or in a situation that requires urgent care, please call 999 immediately to obtain medical assistance. Even if you are in doubt whether your actions might have legal repercussions for the person, remember that in a situation of imminent danger the most important thing is to ensure people are safe. Security staff on campus can also assist contacting emergency services.
If you would like to flag a concern or help a person sleeping rough get in touch with a charity, there are numerous ways in which you can help.
Report your concerns to LSE security staff
All LSE Security staff (both employed and contracted) have completed Homeless Wise Training in partnership with St Mungo’s on the causes of homelessness, the relationship between homelessness and housing, employment, mental ill health and substance abuse. Since many homeless people are actually in work, Security were also trained on how to spot signs that someone might be homeless or rough sleeping and how to best offer support. Security currently monitors and records all homeless activity on the LSE campus.
In the case that students or staff report a homeless person, our security officers will go out to investigate. They will give advice about organizations (St Mungo’s or other charities) who support vulnerable people so they know how to contact local services for help. If any issue has been flagged, they try to resolve the situation. In many cases all that may be required is a polite reminder to the individual about their behaviour.
In some cases, for example if they sleep on a fire exit, use school property in an inappropriate way or persistently display an unacceptable behaviour, an individual might need to be removed from the school property.
In such cases our staff are required to:
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Politely ask the person to leave school property, explaining the reason and giving options as to organisations they can contact for shelter and support
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Behave in the most professional and courteous manner whilst maintaining control of the situation
In all these situations, the homeless person will be treated with respect and will be provided with all the information and advice that could help them.
Refer someone to a homelessness charity
You can also send an alert to a charity about someone homeless or rough sleeping using the StreetLink app. You can download it on your phone or see here for more information. Please note however that StreetLink is for adults only. If the person you are concerned about is under 18, you should call 999.
Other resources
For more information on this issue and ways in which you can help, you can consult St Mungo’s HomelessWise page here.
There are numerous other homelessness charities operating in London and nationally:
Shelter
Crisis
Centrepoint
London Homeless Charities Group
Following a motion passed by the Students Union in 2020 and initially established as a two-year partnership with St Mungo’s, one of the country’s leading charities on the issue, the LSE Homelessness Initiative continues to work as a collaboration between the School and the Students’ Union. Its mission is to lead and empower the LSE community to play a meaningful, active, and leading role in:
- Alleviating homelessness in the local community
- Efforts to end homelessness in society.
The initiative is made up of volunteers across the SU, professional service staff and faculty, and covers these areas of activity: Communication, Fundraising, Research, Security and Volunteering.
What we have done so far
On 7 February 2024, LSEHI helped promote research conducted by Dr Michela Tinelli in CPEC, in collaboration with King’s College London. Dr Tinelli and her team have developed an innovative management dashboard for use by local authorities to help them better understand and meet demand for homelessness services. We also supported the organisation of an event to further develop the dashboard, which involved representatives from local authorities, commissioning boards and the charity sector.
On 15 November 2023, we worked with the Volunteering Centre to organise a Take Action seminar on homelessness. This was led by Professor Christine Whitehead and representatives from two homelessness charities, The Connection at St Martin’s and Amurt UK.
On 17 October 2023, we organised a panel event - Homelessness in London in a Time of Crisis. This was co-hosted by LSE's Executive Office and LSE London as part of the public lecture series. Chaired by Nancy Holman (LSE London) and moderated by Manny Hothi of Trust For London, it involved a conversation between Professor Christine Whitehead (LSE London), Dr Jennifer Wynter (Hackney Council), Pam Orchard (The Connection at St Martin’s), Maria-Christina Vogkli (LSE, R&I). They took questions from our 200+ strong audience and discussed the scale of the homelessness crisis, its drivers, possible solutions and how individuals can get involved.
So far, the total Raised from Staff and Student Fundraising Initiatives, including Christmas donations and the Donate your Commute campaign among others, was £16,044. More recently, at the LSE Christmas concert, £530 was raised and donated to St Mungo’s.
In 2020, Professor Christine Whitehead undertook a Rapid Review of issues around the “Recourse to Public Funds” policy for the Kerslake Commission Review of the government’s Everyone In campaign of 2020. This was published as part of the Kerslake Commissions report and can be found on the LSELondon website here.
We have organised various events to raise awareness, including the Take Action seminars and blog, social media engagement and highlighting numerous volunteering opportunities for students to work with homelessness and food poverty charities like St Mungo’s.
We've also supported the delivery of tailored, in-person training on how to support rough sleepers and homeless people to all LSE Security staff operating on campus. This is being repeated for new staff intake and expanded to include security staff in halls of residence.
We're proud to support our student societies and the charitable work they and their members do around homelessness, with examples including:
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RAG – Fundraising for St Mungo’s
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ISOC – Soup Kitchen
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Oxfam – did an event regarding initiatives for building houses for homeless people with SoloHaus
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Athletics Union – Tube stop walk for Homelessness & wanted to do a sleep rough in aid of this
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Hindu society did an event with Project Giving to serve food to the homeless
We are always planning more activities, from events to fundraising drives. If you are a member of staff or a student who has an idea or would like to volunteer as part of the initiative, please contact executiveoffice.lsehi@lse.ac.uk.
The LSEHI mission is to lead and empower the LSE community to play a meaningful, active and leading role in:
- Alleviating homelessness in the local community
- Efforts to end homelessness in society
It aims to do this whilst ensuring that:
- All LSEHI activities are informed by those with a lived experience of homelessness
- All LSEHI activities exist first and foremost to help people experiencing homelessness and/or to help advance work that will seek to end homelessness in society
- All LSEHI activities have embedded in them opportunities for both student and staff involvement
- Students and staff are given space to innovate, initiate and lead on homelessness projects
- LSE’s approach to homelessness in and around its campus is undertaken with sensitivity and compassion