Making a lasting difference

Beverley Russell joined Stoll Housing eight years ago, and has been coordinating the activity of the No Homeless Veterans campaign, working closely with partners at Homeless Link and the National Housing Federation, as well as the Cobseo (Confederation of Service Charities) Housing Cluster.

Here, she reflects on the changes she’s seen in the sector over the years, the impact of the No Homeless Veterans campaign, and what it takes to make a lasting difference for veterans experiencing homelessness.

You joined Stoll long before the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. Presumably you’ve seen a lot of change, both in terms of the needs of the veterans Stoll supports and in the veterans’ supported housing sector more generally?

The biggest change is the amount of partnership working across both the veteran and public sectors, particularly on joint projects. This has meant more services for veterans, around physical and mental health, employment opportunities, and access to skills and training.

For frontline organisations like Stoll this has also meant having specialist embedded workers who add great value to our support for veterans.

Funding remains an issue for frontline organisations like Stoll but our relationships with warm funders, particularly those that are veteran organisations themselves, have grown and developed and are more like partnerships.

The way we communicate with our various audiences, including veterans, has changed too. For the No Homeless Veterans campaign this has meant we’ve been able to expand our reach, by providing online training and toolkits, and by engaging housing teams through social media.

How has the No Homeless Veterans campaign made a difference?

The campaign has given real practical support to housing teams in understanding the issues around veterans’ homelessness and what do to do when a veteran presents for social housing. Housing teams have been under huge pressure, particularly post-pandemic, and the campaign enables them to access extensive toolkits with a wealth of information and case studies, including good practice across the sector.

The campaign webinars, which are all recorded, deal with key issues particularly around law and guidance across England, Scotland and Wales, and allow for discussions within housing teams as to how to improve their services for veterans.

The campaign has impacted policy at the highest level. The launch of Op-Fortitude by the Prime Minister and Veterans Minister before Christmas showed a real commitment to end veterans’ homelessness and support 900 units of supported housing for veterans. The government has committed £8.5m over the next two years.

Plus, the campaign is mentioned in new guidance on the Armed Force Covenant, issued in November last year. There are direct links to the campaign website and to the case studies used in the campaign, access to the toolkits, audit tools and webinars which support social housing teams.

The campaign has also helped to keep the issue of veterans’ homelessness in the public eye. And in doing so it has highlighted issues that contribute to veterans’ homelessness including mental health, debt and addiction.

There have been two phases of the campaign. How has this latest phase been different to the first? And why was a second phase needed?

The first phase had notable success with local authorities, highlighting the issue of veterans’ homelessness and encouraging housing teams to ask the question ‘are you a veteran’ when someone presents in housing need. But we always felt there was more to do and wanted to expand the campaign to include housing associations and other social housing providers.

We also wanted to work in partnership with these housing providers and give them lasting and relevant tools which will add value to their work. There is a great amount of good practice in the sector and we wanted to share that too.

The second phase brought in new partners Homeless Link and the National Housing Federation who have great expertise in the social housing sector and good links through their memberships.

We also wanted to make a difference in policy both at a local and national level and I think we’ve achieved that.

The main activity of the campaign is wrapping up now. How can No Homeless Veterans continue to help, beyond the period for which there is funding?

The campaign website will continue to be a valuable resource for housing teams. The toolkits, template documents, factsheets and training videos can be accessed at any time, and we encourage everyone to make good use of them.

What more needs to be done, and by whom? And do you remain optimistic?

I think we need to continue to work across sectors and to continue working in partnerships, both in the veterans’ sector but also across the public sector. Organisations like Stoll, who provide veterans supported housing, need to continue to talk about issues that impact veterans including homelessness.

I have been so heartened by the response to the campaign across all sectors and from the public which makes me very optimistic for the future. There seems to be more bi-partisan support across the political parties on issues affecting veterans too, and whatever happens at the next general election I’m hopeful that will continue.

Anyone interested in finding out more about the No Homeless Veterans campaign and the resources that are available, please email Beverley Russell.