Our homelessness lead has joined other sector experts as a panellist at the Homes for Cathy Annual Conference on World Homelessness Day today.

Hazel O’Halloran was alongside the chief executive of the National Housing Federation, vice president of the Chartered Institute of Housing and others at the event in Westminster. Hazel was a panellist on a discussion about how housing associations can successfully work closer with local authorities to house people experiencing homelessness.

Hazel said: “Playing a part in reducing homelessness in our big four local authority areas is one of the goals in the Bromford Strategy. But it’s something that can only be done by working in partnership with those authorities and other key partners. Colleagues hold regular meetings with representatives from those local authorities and our relationship with each of them is becoming stronger. We work together on data sharing as well as initiatives such as our Housing First projects in Cotswolds and Lichfield, which supports housing people with complex needs.

“But there is always room to improve and do more, especially at a time where many are predicting that the cost of living crisis could inevitably cause thousands of people to be at greater risk of homelessness. With more than one in five people already living in poverty, homelessness will become ever more prevalent over the months ahead. So I’m looking forward to talking about our experiences and hearing from others about the successes they’ve had and whether there’s anything we can implement to enhance the work we are already doing to reduce homelessness."