While OSW’s focus is skills and employment, we recognise the importance of looking more holistically at individuals’ circumstances. Given that housing is clearly a fundamental issue for homeless people, we are increasingly looking at how employment and housing solutions need to integrate.

Some examples of our work in this area are:

• Our ‘No Home, No Job’ (2005) (225 Kb) research highlighted the range of barriers that many homeless people face in trying to move towards or into employment. Some of the key barriers included living in a hostel culture that doesn’t do enough to promote skills and employment, and high hostel rents and the benefits trap that results.
• In response to this research, we have developed the Transitional Spaces Project (TSP), which is a pilot service designed to join up employment and housing solutions.
• Research has been conducted into the role that housing providers play in supporting residents to access training and employment opportunities. The research examines how better integration between housing and employment solutions could be achieved.
• Further research was conducted into whether homeless people are better off by working. This research looks at a wide range of factors, but one of the key areas it focuses on is how moving into employment impacts on homeless people’s housing.
• OSW’s active involvement in the Department for Communities and Local Government’s (DCLG) Homelessness Strategy Delivery Subgroup Workstream 3, which focused on employment, benefits and training. The Workstream looked at these issues in the context of housing problems and other issues that affect homeless people.
• The OSW Conference 2006 brought together projects that have established good practice in achieving integration between housing and employment solutions, to promote wider strategic integration.