Driving change
Ending homelessness: We’re forging new paths
We’ve helped shift how homelessness is tackled in Scotland, funding bold research and pioneering new approaches to food, homes, and jobs that others can adopt. Now, we want to do more of the same across the UK.
We helped spark a move to “rapid rehousing” for people experiencing homelessness in Scotland, and we’re creating blueprints others can build on. Our Social Bite Villages model reimagines temporary accommodation, giving people beautiful, dignified, supported places to live. And our Jobs First programme is supporting people into lasting, meaningful employment in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. Now we’re ready to drive change further, across the UK, backed by our amazing partners and supporters.
How we’ve sparked change
From Sleep in the Park to our role on the Scottish Government’s Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group, we’ve used public campaigns and formal advocacy to make rapid rehousing (fast support to find and keep a home) the norm, not the exception.
Sleep in the Park
Our Sleep in the Park events turned one winter’s night into a powerful call for change, bringing tens of thousands of people together, raising millions of pounds, and pushing homelessness to the top of the political agenda.
Securing 800 tenancies
We asked housing associations and councils to pledge ordinary, permanent tenancies for people who had experienced rough sleeping and long‑term homelessness. The outcome? We secured hundreds of homes that helped launch Scotland’s Housing First Pathfinder.
A voice at the policy table
Our co-founder Josh Littlejohn was part of the Scottish Government’s Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group, which helped shift national policy towards rapid rehousing and Housing First as the default response for people facing homelessness.
Ecosystem thinking
We’ve used large-scale events like Sleep in the Park, The World’s Big Sleep Out, and Festival of Kindness to spotlight the movement to end homelessness and get many more people involved. In the process, we’ve raised money and awareness for a whole network of homelessness charities, not just Social Bite.
By pooling energy, media attention, and sponsorship in this way, collaborative action can support dozens of projects at once—funding emergency support, housing, outreach and more across different cities and countries.
This has helped normalise the idea that fundraising isn’t competitive. It’s a model we’ll keep championing, because ending homelessness needs a movement that pulls together.
Read the game-changing research
Proving that new approaches work is key to driving wider adoption. Money raised from our Sleep Out events helped fund influential research and reports on housing policy, paving the way for Housing First. More recently, an independent evaluation of our Jobs First programme has shown significant social and economic benefits; this research is essential reading for policy-makers and employers alike.