Building Sustainable Supportive Housing Together - PolicyTalk

Goal

Homelessness continues to be a concern for London residents, communities, and nonprofits who serve them. The Big Picture 2025 Report highlighed housing, homelessness, and equity as some of the key areas of concern in London. 

This event is designed to bring together academic researchers, policymakers, nonprofit organizations, and community members to build a shared understanding of key issues, assess progress and gaps, examine ongoing challenges, and co-create practical, community-driven solutions. 

The event will explore community insights and policy options for sustainable supportive housing models and examine the factors shaping responses to London’s housing and homelessness crisis. As we move closer to the municipal election, this event helps keep these issues at the forefront of policy conversations while supporting nonprofits working in this space.

Objectives 

• Bring together academic research, local data, and lived experiences to deepen understanding of the root causes, scale, and impacts of homelessness, and the need for sustained, system-level investment in supportive housing in London.

• Examine current housing, homelessness, and supportive housing responses in London to identify what is working, where gaps remain, and where systems are falling short - particularly in health and housing integration.

• Highlight the role of supportive housing as a preventative health and social intervention, including its relationship to hospital discharge practices, emergency department use, and continuity of care.

• Contribute to reframing public narratives around homelessness by reducing stigma, countering NIMBYism, and reinforcing the idea of people experiencing homelessness as neighbours and community members.
  

• Create a space for meaningful dialogue among researchers, people with lived experience, policymakers, nonprofit leaders, healthcare partners, and frontline practitioners to strengthen relationships and encourage coordinated, cross-sector system-level support.

Panel Discusion 

The event will feature a panel discussion with dedicated time for questions and contributions from the audience. The panel is designed to foster a rich and inclusive conversation and will include four members: a municipal policymaker, a supportive housing researcher, a frontline nonprofit supportive housing leader, and an individual with lived experience of homelessness.

Who should attend

We anticipate approximately 60–90 participants for this policy talk. Policy Talks are for everyone. We especially encourage nonprofit organizations, board members, frontline workers, municipal policymakers, city staff, systems change advocates, and community members to attend. By bringing together people across roles, identities, and sectors, we can break down silos, share our collective knowledge and resources, and strengthen our commitment to creating change.