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We can help end homelessness with big data

The pandemic could drive up homeless numbers, let’s use all the tools available now to get on top of a future problem, writes Geoff Mulgan

Friday 26 March 2021 10:40 GMT
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The government’s response to homelessness and its “Everyone In” policy, in March 2020 during the first national lockdown, showed us what was possible in terms of responding to street homelessness quickly, and at scale. This also helped the UK to avoid an immediate US-style homelessness crisis.

The big question is – what happens next? Homelessness is often the end product of many different factors prompted by debt, family breakdown, mental illness or leaving a big institution – from prison to the armed forces.

Policy has to work on three dimensions at once. It has to work upstream stemming the flows into homelessness. It has to address immediate needs for food and shelter. And it has to work downstream to ensure sustainable pathways back to a stable home and life.

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