Sukhvinder Rai, Director of Housing & Support, The Housing Network discusses the need for a nuanced and understanding approach to tackling homelessness.
Across the homelessness sector, there is growing recognition that the needs of people experiencing homelessness are becoming increasingly complex. While housing pressures remain a significant driver, many single people and families now present with overlapping challenges including mental health issues, trauma, offending histories, substance misuse and long-term instability. Services are being asked to respond to deeper and more intersecting support requirements than ever before.
Responding effectively requires more than additional resources alone. It requires services that are flexible enough to adapt to changing personal circumstances and capable of providing the right support at the right time by qualified staff. Our Active Opportunities Pathway (AOP) is one example of how homelessness services are evolving to respond to this reality.
This is not simply about improving outcomes for residents. It is also about reducing pressure on public services and ensuring resources are used effectively. An independent 2026 evaluation by Homeless Link examined 394 residents across our AOP services, estimating annual public sector cost consequences of at least £3.51 million if that support were withdrawn. The report highlights the wider value of preventing crisis escalation before it occurs.
Understanding growing complexity
Homelessness among single people and, increasingly, families is often the visible outcome of a much wider set of challenges. People may be dealing with poor mental health, fractured family relationships, financial hardship, adverse childhood experiences or involvement with the criminal justice system. For many, these issues have developed over years and can be difficult to resolve through housing alone.
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The Homeless Link evaluation found consistently high levels of intersecting support needs across our AOP services, including mental health challenges, substance misuse, domestic abuse, physical disabilities and multiple disadvantage.
Progress is rarely linear. Individuals may experience setbacks, changes in circumstance and periods of disengagement, requiring providers to maintain a focus on long-term outcomes. The challenge is not simply responding to a crisis in the moment, but continuing to support positive movement towards greater stability and independence over the longer term.
Why one-size-fits-all approaches often fall short
Traditional housing models can struggle to respond effectively to complex and evolving needs. Support requirements vary significantly and often change over time, meaning different people need different levels of accommodation and support at different stages of their journey.
Flexibility is therefore becoming increasingly important. People need access to accommodation and support that reflects their individual circumstances rather than being expected to fit neatly into predetermined service categories. This is equally true for single people and families, whose needs can change rapidly depending on their personal circumstances.
The importance of trauma-informed practice
As understanding of homelessness has developed, there has been greater recognition of the role trauma can play in shaping behaviour, decision-making and engagement with services.
Trauma-informed practice encourages support teams to look beyond behaviours and understand the experiences that may sit behind them. Alongside strength-based approaches, this helps people identify goals, build resilience and regain confidence in their ability to move forward and avoid returning to homelessness. These principles sit at the heart of our AOP model.
The quality of the relationship between a resident, family or household and their Complex Needs Support Worker (as we call them) can be critical in helping people rebuild their lives and avoid returning to homelessness. By building trust and maintaining consistent support, providers are often better placed to help people navigate setbacks without losing sight of longer-term goals.
Creating supportive and safe environments
Supporting people with complex needs requires environments that help them feel safe and able to engage with support.
We know that digital inclusion can play an important role. Access to digital devices can help residents engage with services, employment opportunities, financial inclusion support and wider community networks. AOP incorporates digital tablets into support planning and risk assessment processes, enabling support workers and residents to co-produce plans and tailor interventions around individual needs.
Just as important is ensuring people are in the right place at the right time. Safety and reassurance measures such as CCTV, controlled access arrangements and well-managed accommodation environments can help create the stability needed for recovery and progression. Within AOP, CCTV is actively monitored, enabling our mobile concierge team to identify anti-social behaviour or safeguarding concerns early and intervene before issues escalate. These practical measures sit alongside psychologically informed and trauma-informed approaches to risk management.
Why eviction should be a last resort
Where people have experienced multiple disadvantages, tenancy breakdown can have significant consequences. Losing accommodation often results in further instability, increased trauma and a greater risk of repeat homelessness.
Within AOP, eviction is viewed as a last resort rather than a routine response to challenging behaviour. This means recognising that setbacks should not automatically be viewed as failures and exploring alternative interventions wherever possible.
The Homeless Link evaluation noted that eviction is treated as a last resort within AOP services in order to keep people engaged with support during periods of crisis and instability, helping reduce the risk of further trauma and disengagement.
For many people, retaining an existing tenancy while receiving targeted support is far more effective than restarting the journey from the beginning following a tenancy breakdown.
The case for structured pathways
As needs become more complex, there is a growing case for housing pathways that allow people to move between different levels of support according to changing circumstances.
Structured, step-up and step-down approaches enable people to access higher levels of support when required and transition towards greater independence when they are ready, without losing continuity of care.
AOP has been developed around this principle. Through trauma-informed support, personalised planning and flexible accommodation models, residents can move between support environments as their needs change. Crucially, this helps prevent journey fracture, reducing the risk of further trauma and breakdowns in trust with support systems.
Effective responses increasingly rely on housing providers working alongside partners across health, justice, education and employment services to ensure support remains aligned to an individual’s changing needs. This multi-agency approach is essential if people are to access the wider support needed to achieve long-term stability.
Looking ahead
The complexity of homelessness is unlikely to diminish in the coming years. This has important implications for commissioning and service design, with prevention, stabilisation and progression needing to be recognised as valuable outcomes in their own right.
The findings of Homeless Link’s 2026 evaluation demonstrate the wider value of this approach. Covering 394 residents across AOP services, the report concluded that supported housing can deliver significant public sector benefits by preventing crisis escalation, reducing repeat homelessness and easing pressure on other services.
Through trauma-informed practice, structured pathways and a commitment to sustaining support through periods of difficulty, housing providers can help create the conditions for lasting stability and independence.
For more information, the Homeless Link Active Opportunities Pathway Social Impact Report can be accessed here: https://issuu.com/lisag069/docs/aop_social_impact_report_hl_jun_26
