lha-2019-v1

The prestigious London Homelessness Awards 2019 are now open.  The three winners of the award will be announced in October and receive £30000, £20000 and £10000.

The London Homelessness Awards are the country’s leading homelessness awards and highlight innovative practice in the homelessness sector in London.  As well as the cash, the winning projects receive professional support to publicise their work, a promotional film highlighting their achievement and assistance to further develop the profile of their organisation.

The London Homelessness Awards are open to not-for-profit organisations based in London working in the field of homelessness including charities, registered social landlords, council departments, London NHS and health related organisations, voluntary and statutory organisations or a partnership of these agencies.

Last year’s winner, who received £30000, was Beam, who crowd fund to fund homeless and ex homeless people through training.  Their Chief Executive Alex Stephany said: “Winning the LHAs was an incredible vote of confidence in our team and model. If you’re doing work that you think matters, get an application into the LHAs. It’s an amazing ceremony and an amazing prize. But above all there are so many brilliant people and organisations you will meet as we did as part of the application process.”

The other winners, receiving £20000 and £10000 respectively were the Safer London Pan London Housing Reciprocal and the South London and Maudsley Psychology in Hostels Project.

Esther Sample, from the Safer London team said: “Winning a London Homelessness Award last year was an amazing experience for my whole team. The prize money has helped us to continue to grow and build our work to the point that we have now moved over 200 adults and children into safe housing. If you are considering applying, definitely do so.”

Jon Sparkes, Chief Executive of Crisis, said: “‘The homelessness crisis continues across the country and in London, and despite the amazing work of many organisations in the capital the pressure of the social housing shortage and benefits not covering the cost of housing continues to put more people at risk of homelessness. This requires policy changes, and the continued commitment, innovation and sustainable funding of services to prevent, tackle and end homelessness. Every year the London Homelessness Awards showcase just a few of those amazing services, demonstrating what can be done – and providing much-needed publicity and awareness of homelessness and the solutions.“

Simon Dow is the Executive Chair of the London Housing Foundation.  He said “Every day there are many organisations – large and small – doing great work with homeless people in London.  These awards recognise and reward this excellent work.”

To watch a film about the 2018 award winners and find out more details about how to enter this year’s awards, please go to www.lhawards.org.uk

The London Homelessness Awards are sponsored by the London Housing Foundation, Crisis, Shelter, the Mayor of London and the London Housing Directors.

Beam win London Homelessness Awards