The LSE Homelessness Initiative Activity Fund

There are growing number of university students in London who are experiencing or are at risk of homelessness. This is being driven by a combination of high housing costs, low incomes and increasingly limited financial support from the Government. Most student homelessness goes unreported, making it difficult for universities to understand and respond to the scale of the problem.

The key objective of the project was to help universities in London better understand how they can support students who are experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness, including by building connections between student services functions, homelessness charities and student bodies.

The researchers at LSE's Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) began with an evidence review that found limited literature on the issue within the UK, reflecting the extent to which student homelessness is often hidden and has had limited policy attention. They then carried out a desk-based analysis of 10 representative London universities’ policies for supporting students experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness - they looked for good practice as well as gaps in provision or areas for improvement.

To bring together key stakeholders in this issue, a roundtable event was held in Spring 2025 at LSE. Representatives from eight universities as well as from Centrepoint and New Horizon Youth Centre, both dedicated youth homelessness charities, attended.

Drawing on their desk work and this roundtable, the final report for this project provides recommendations for the higher education sector to improve support to students, including the need to move to a more systemic approach to this growing issue and for better data collection and communication of services available to students in need.

Since the roundtable, the research team presented their work at conferences and have been invited to submit articles to academic journals. They are continuing to develop this work thanks to a data-sharing agreement with the UCL Specialist Housing Advice service, giving them access to the first quantitative dataset on student homelessness in the UK.

The LSE archives contain a rich tapestry of materials related to homelessness, from the Poor Laws of Victorian London to recent oral histories collected by St. Mungo’s, as well much that remains undiscovered or under-explored.

This project, led by the LSE Library in partnership with Arts & Homelessness International (AHI), placed three artists who are or have been homeless alongside research and archive professionals to explore these materials. During three workshops the artist-led team explored historical documents relating to social reform, housing, politics and oral history, as well as items like handwritten letters, pamphlets, and books.

In response to what they found and through their own experiences, they created art that aimed to foreground underrepresented stories, challenge stigma, and demonstrate how archives can become spaces of inclusion, creativity and social change.

That art and the insights their exploration yielded are now included in the Library’s digital archive and were the centrepiece of a public showcase of their work for the LSE community in July 2025, which received overwhelmingly positive feedback.

In September 2025, the showcase was presented at the Group for Education in Museums Conference 2025. LSEHI is now also part of the AHI’s University Peer Homelessness Network, joining universities, individual scholars and other partners interested in exploring the use of creativity to combat homelessness. As part of this network, LSE will be a contributor to a toolkit designed to provide guidance to universities who want to support staff and students at risk of or experiencing homelessness.

If you’d like to read more about the project, you can do so here.

When we think of homeless people, we often think of adults, but young people are of course also at risk: according to the charity Centrepoint, 118,134 young people were homeless or at risk of homelessness in 2023-24. 

Some of these young people live in assisted / supported accommodation, which is specifically meant to give them the security and skills they need to build their own, independent lives. This project, suggested by an LSE student with lived experience of homelessness, meant working with Impakt Housing, a supported accommodation in Bedford, to give some of their residents new and valuable educational opportunities.

The first component is LSEHI contributing to the foundation of a new reading club aimed at fostering literacy, critical thinking, and communication skills. The second was organising a trip to London for 15 young residents, including a visit to LSE and an introduction to the world of higher education. They were given a tour of campus by our Deputy COO, followed by a presentation and Q&A session at our Volunteer Centre. 

Following the trip, participants reported increased confidence, interest in education, and enjoyment of the experience - feeling "...full of inspiration and excitement for the future". The development of the reading club continues. 

There are a number of public bodies that provide support to people experiencing homelessness and one of the greatest obstacles they face is tracking and understanding the data they produce. Doing so successfully can mean answering important questions like who is using their services, what impact those services are having and how resources can be used more effectively.

This project focuses on a platform developed by Dr Michela Tinelli and her team that collects and visualises data related to the care given to homeless people leaving hospital. Named CQE or “Care Quality Evaluation”, it has been a significant success and has been recognised by NHS England and the Department for Health and Social Care as an example of best practice.

The LSEHI team supported Dr Tinelli in organising a stakeholder event, showcasing the CQE platform as part of The LSE Festival 2025: Visions for the Future. Alongside a public mural exhibition, 40 participants took part from local authorities like North Somerset Council and the London Borough of Hackney; from charities like the British Red Cross and Homeless Link; and from research and policy organisations like the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

Dr Tinelli continues to develop CQE, has been invited to speak at conferences and was recently named Runner-Up in the LSE Impact Prize for Outstanding Engagement. You can read more about her work here. 

In early 2025, the LSE Homelessness Initiative and the Hackney Migrant Centre jointly hosted a public event and panel discussion that aimed to raise awareness of the difficulty that migrants and refugees to the UK face in accessing housing, and their disproportionate exposure to homelessness as a result of that.

As well as raising awareness of this issue, the event hoped to foster connections between actors in the housing space, from academics to charities to policymakers, and create opportunities for new ideas and collaborations to emerge.

The panel was composed of experts from frontline organisations providing direct support to these groups (Hackney Night Shelter, Refugee Action and Hackney Migrant Centre). It was moderated by LSE PhD Candidate Rémy Twahirwa and followed by a Q&A session and networking reception for over 50 attendees coming from NGOs, housing sector stakeholders, or local authorities. Several attendees also took the opportunity to donate to Hackney Migrant Centre’s emergency fund.

Following the event, Rémy Twahirwa reflected on learnings generated from the event in a blog published across several academic platforms, while Hackney Migrant Centre also published a summary of what they had learned from the event. 

The organiser of the panel, LSE student Joss Harrison, did an excellent job in pulling the event together commented afterwards: “I found the process of co-organising this event immensely meaningful and personally fulfilling."