As more people than ever find themselves without a secure home in the UK, these Changemakers – whether charities, grassroots organisations or individuals – are stepping in to help.
Furnishing Futures
Emily Wheeler (centre) with the team. Image: Kristy Noble
One of the biggest challenges for people escaping domestic violence is where to go. Furnishing Futures collects donations from the interiors industry to transform housing into welcoming spaces for women and children fleeing abusive situations. We spoke to Emily Wheeler, founder and CEO.
What is your big issue and how are you trying to tackle it?
We tackle furniture poverty by supporting women who have been placed in empty social housing, often without even flooring or white goods, after escaping domestic abuse. We create beautiful fully furnished, trauma-informed homes for survivors, using new items donated by the interiors industry that would otherwise have gone to landfill.
What’s the one thing you want people to know about your work?
Being rehoused after homelessness is just the beginning of someone’s journey to recovery, especially if the housing is empty. We provide holistic support to give women and children the best possible chance to rebuild their lives in safety.
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Do you have any memorable moments from 2024?
We launched our first campaign No Place Like Home, highlighting the impact of furniture poverty and empty social housing on survivors.
What are your plans for 2025?
To scale our services across a wider area, to continue to work towards system change in the housing sector and to campaign for all social housing to include flooring as standard. We are also opening a new events space in Leyton, East London called The Atrium to help raise awareness of the issues we tackle.
Kirsty Fields, Off the Streets
Off the Streets is a grassroots homeless charity based in Southend-on-Sea, started by Kirsty Fields and her mum in 2018. Their main objective is to get rough sleepers off the streets and into permanent accommodation. They also work with other agencies, like StreetLink, to prevent homelessness. In 2022, the charity bought a small seven-bedroom hotel for use as a homelessness shelter, which after two years of refurbishment, will open in January 2025. Fields’s nominator wrote: “Her work is at the heart of modern-day Britain, helping the forgotten get back on their feet. Kirsty, Karen and the team are some of the real unsung heroes in Essex.”
When Dunbar was a teenager, his older sister, Margo, took her own life. He wanted to channel his grief into something positive by helping others in crisis, and in 2000 he founded New Start Highland (NSH). The charity and social enterprise helps vulnerable people in the north of Scotland overcome poverty, crisis and social isolation. It delivers solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing the UK, including housing insecurity, social inequality, poverty and long-term unemployment. His nominator wrote: “He may not have known it back when he was in the thick of such a traumatic experience, but that time was a catalyst for starting one of Scotland’s leading charities that creates routes out of homelessness, an organisation which provides life changing support and a safe environment for all who walk through its doors, enabling them to realise their potential and move forward to a more positive place in their lives.”
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Iversen (left). Image: Christian Banfield
Mikkel Juel Iversen, Under One Sky
“Mikkel Iversen seems, at times superhuman,” writes his nominator. A visionary and social entrepreneur, Iversen has a “big heart”, a “relentless work ethic”, and is committed to supporting those who are most isolated in society. It is because of his “herculean” efforts that Under One Sky has become one of the most impactful outreach organisations working in homelessness in the UK, with 2,500-plus volunteers. Iversen’s work brings together people who tread very different paths, but are united by a sense of humanity, dignity and knowing we all exist Under One Sky.
Kloé Avon, Redihomes
Kloé Avon began in 2013 as a street outreach worker, providing food, clothing and essentials on the streets of Birmingham. In 2017 she launched a housing team that rehoused 99 people in its first year. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Avon developed Redihomes, an online platform to connect verified landlords directly with service users to “minimise rough sleeping and the anxiety eviction brings”. The platform was introduced at London Tech Week and, after some rebuilding, it is due to go live in 2025. Most recently, she launched the Community Red Social Supermarket to provide affordable food.
Find the rest of the Changemakers series on the links below and pick up the magazine from your local Big Issue vendor.
Based in Northampton, Stan Robertson is a street pastor who works as a volunteer with a mission to give street sleepers dignity. His nominator explains that Robertson himself was once a rough sleeper, “so he knows how tough life can be living this way”. Robertson also runs Project 16:15, a rough sleeper outreach service and community cafe, where 100% of funds raised benefits those on the street. This is a true grassroots organisation. Robertson’s nominator writes: “There isn’t a lot on the project’s web page. Stan is more concerned with being out there helping others.”
Based in Weymouth, The Lantern Trust is an independent registered charity founded in 1983 to help vulnerable and marginalised people. It provides a wide range of services including advocacy, crisis response, frontline practical assistance and welfare benefits. The Lantern Trust also runs an assisted rent deposit scheme delivering help with housing. Over the 40 years it has been active, the charity has made strong links with the county council as well as medical services to provide a remarkable level of support.
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Darren Murinas Chief Executive. Image: Expert Citizens CIC
Expert Citizens CIC
Expert Citizens is a dynamic and forward-thinking Community Interest Company (CIC) led by and for people dealing with ‘multiple disadvantage’. This means someone experiencing more than one difficulty at once, for example, facing homelessness and experiencing mental ill-health. Expert Citizen specifically supports people with experiences of a combination of homelessness, mental ill-health, addiction, domestic abuse, poverty or criminal justice. Their nominator made special mention of Expert Citizens director Darren Murinas, who uses his own experience of “severe and multiple disadvantage” to challenge stereotypes. He dispels the myth that people experiencing some of the toughest social issues of our time are making some kind of lifestyle choice.
Rural Urban Synthesis Society
Big Issue Investees, Rural Urban Synthesis Society (RUSS) is the brainchild of brothers Kareem and Ahmad, launched in response to the dire lack of genuinely affordable housing in South East London. The volunteer-led Community Land Trust was founded in 2009 with the mission of creating sustainable neighbourhoods and genuinely affordable homes. In 2024 they completed a block of 36 homes at Church Grove in leafy Ladywell, Lewisham: the culmination of 15 years of community and voluntary action, of some hardcore DIY and a dream to do housing differently. Big Issue Invest, Big Issue’s social investment arm invested £1.275m in RUSS in 2022. “We are proud to have supported RUSS and contributed to their development at Church Grove,” BII’s investment director for housing Glenn Arradon said. “Our hope is that many similar projects will follow in RUSS’s footsteps over the next five to 10 years.”
Matthew’s House Swansea
Matt’s Cafe Christmas lunch. Image: Matthew’s House
Matthew’s House is a small but highly respected community organisation supporting Swansea’s most vulnerable. Despite only having four full-time staff members, they have a dedicated volunteer army of 120+ generous people, many with lived experience, who give their time to support those in the city struggling with homelessness, mental health, addictions and isolation, and much more. They provide a pay-as-you-feel cafe called Matt’s Cafe, dignity packs, shower and laundry facilities, one-to-one advocacy support for guests (Matt’s Buddies), a smartphone app (Hope in Swansea) signposting to 150+ support services in the city and a community choir. Realising the difficulty many of their guests have in gaining access to services, twice weekly they host other organisations to come on site in Hope Hall. Guests have described their work as a “lifesaver”, “beacon of hope” and “fourth emergency service”.
