How can homelessness services be expected to deliver with only short-term funding?

The issue we see across our services time and time again is the clear discrepancy between short-term work and people’s lives. Trying to wrap support up in a neat one-size-fits-all or arbitrary-length-of-time package just isn’t realistic when it comes to having meaningful interventions.

At Connection Support, we pride ourselves on delivering a response that is appropriately tailored to each individual, and that requires a far more nuanced approach than short-term funding cycles allow for.

That’s not to say that short-term funding doesn’t have value. Over the past 30 years, we’ve been able to mobilise various innovative services and we consistently, successfully support people through these initiatives.

“I’ve seen cases where clients have worked to rebuild their lives – reached the cusp of achieving independence – only for funding limitations to bring their progress to a halt”

But when many of our clients come to us with complex needs that stem from a lifetime of trauma, providing an emergency bed or short burst of intervention is a plaster at most. I’ve seen cases where clients have worked to rebuild their lives – reached the cusp of achieving independence – only for funding limitations to bring their progress to a halt.

Whether it was due to the end of a funding stream, or red tape that constrained the type of intervention we could offer, the outcome was the same. Clients fell back into old coping mechanisms, failed to sustain their tenancy, and ended up back where they started, or worse: in prison, sleeping rough, living on a mental health ward, or, most tragically, dying.

Our experience tells us that by not truly unpacking and addressing the root cause that led someone to becoming homeless, we’re likely to see that person return through a revolving door to access help and support later on.

I imagine being trapped in this cycle of temporary solutions that never quite fully address your needs can feel like you’re being built up and let down time and time again. This makes me question whether, despite knowing the good they can do, some short-term funded services inadvertently hinder clients’ progress, or worse still, are potentially retraumatising them.

Sadly, it isn’t just the clients who are affected. As a charity, we struggle to recruit and retain skilled staff. The nature of short-term funding usually means we’re unable to offer anything more than a fixed-term contract, and that doesn’t bode well for people who are understandably looking for job security.

Very rarely do we get advance warning of funding extensions, so it’s not unusual for staff, who have their own circumstances to consider, to begin a job search three to four months before a funding stream comes to an end.

“As a charity, we struggle to recruit and retain skilled staff. The nature of short-term funding usually means we’re unable to offer anything more than a fixed-term contract”

Ideally, I’d like to be able to forewarn our teams about service closures well in advance, not only so they’re able to focus on supporting their clients, but so they don’t have to contend with the added stress of worrying about how they’ll feed their family or pay their rent.

By not being able to offer a certain level of security, we lose highly skilled, passionate people who have organisational and historical knowledge of delivering quality care. Because we have to re-recruit, retrain and use agency staff to bridge gaps, we’re forced to waste vital resources.

We’re fortunate to have received extension funding for some of our services, enabling us to deliver them on a longer-term basis. Historically, however, this is usually granted for a year at a time, so we’re still faced with a level of uncertainty that affects our ability to develop partnerships, spearhead innovative solutions and seek out unique opportunities. For example, we might lose out on the right accommodation at a good price because we’re unable to sign a longer-term lease.

While there’s more that could be said for the challenges created by short-term funding, it’s important to recognise that the sector is made up of incredibly passionate people, many of whom work for local government and the grant-awarding bodies that are enabling us to support our communities.

Yes, there’s an urgent need for a shift in how homelessness services are funded, and yes, we urgently need a systemic review and restructuring of said funding if we’re to see real, sustainable change. But until then, Connection Support will draw on its 30 years of experience to evolve our way of working so that we’re able to embed prevention in all aspects of our work.

While prevention and short-term funding don’t exactly go hand-in-hand, we’re working with our clients, volunteers, partners, funders and commissioners to bring homelessness to an end.

Chris Keating, chief executive, Connection Support