330,410 households were homeless or at risk of homelessness in 2024-25. Compare this to 269,510 in 2018-19 – a 23% increase.
Local councils, charities, and other organisations are working constantly to support people experiencing homelessness, but how much of what they do is informed by people’s lived experiences?
In my role as a Social Researcher Apprentice at Braintree District Council, I recently had the pleasure of working with residents who had experienced homelessness, to produce an information booklet to help homeless people and rough sleepers meet their basic needs – housing, food, hygiene, warm spaces, etc.
Here’s what I did…
Method
To collect this insight I facilitated a focus group with young adults who had previous experience of homelessness or rough sleeping.
These conversations involved asking them about the things they needed most when experiencing homelessness, how they managed their needs, their awareness of the support available, and what could be done to improve this for others. I also asked for their feedback on various information leaflets, asking them to rank their usefulness and give their opinions on the content and format.
Findings – Do’s and Don’ts
I analysed notes from the focus group to produce a list of Do’s and Don’ts based on what residents shared in the focus group.
Here’s a few of the Do’s:
- Include information about basic essentials but also include information about specialist services (e.g. mental health, domestic abuse, substance misuse, etc).
- Include information about how and where to get support (e.g. addresses, emails, phone numbers), not just what support is available.
- Include a map of the support available – people experiencing homelessness may not have access to or be able to afford a mobile phone or the data required to use Google or Apple maps.
- Include an explanation of what homelessness and rough sleeping is – residents may not realise they are homeless.
- Use weather resistant materials (e.g. glossy or laminated paper), particularly for people rough sleeping.
And here’s a few of the Don’ts:
- Avoid using only black and white colours as this seems depressing and lacks personality.
- Don’t include too much writing as this can be overwhelming, particularly for people with a learning disability.
- Avoid using a small font as this makes the information difficult to read.
- Don’t use images of people who are homeless or rough sleeping, as these may feed into existing stereotypes.
- Avoid using QR codes instead of information – not everybody has access to or can afford a smart phone.
Feedback & Drafts
The findings of the focus group informed the first version of the information booklet. This was then shared with key stakeholders such as Braintree District Council’s partners, internal housing managers, the Head of Housing & Community Services, and with residents who attended the focus group who all shared their feedback. Producing the final version of the leaflet was therefore an iterative process but a worthwhile one.
The final version of the booklet is now distributed regularly by staff as part of Braintree District Council’s housing and homelessness service. A digital version of the booklet is available on Braintree District Council’s website – https://www.braintree.gov.uk/homepage/459/homelessness-and-rough-sleeping-information-booklet-pdf-download
Personal Reflections
Looking back on this experience, there’s definitely some things I’d like to share about what I feel worked well, but also what I found challenging or would do differently next time.
- Getting residents to participate was difficult and in the end only a small number of residents agreed to get involved. I would definitely spend longer planning and thinking about how to recruit participants in future projects.
- It would have been good to do more focus groups, particularly with different age groups and household compositions (e.g. families with children). I also think a focus group with partner organisations would have provided more information about the services available.
- I think the hardest part about creating the booklet itself was trying to balance getting a good amount of detail so that it was actually useful, but not too much so it becomes overwhelming and unreadable. This was particularly difficult when I received feedback from others about things that needed to be added – I really had to evaluate what to include and what to leave out of the content.
Overall, I think the process of incorporating lived experience was very beneficial. I got some really useful insights from the focus group with residents – they mentioned things that my colleagues and I had not even considered. Their perspectives really helped to guide the content and design of the information booklet.
So next time you’re planning on creating a resource, service, or policy, think about how you can use research to incorporate the views and lived experiences of residents and service users.
References
Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (2025) Live tables on homelessness, GOV.UK. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness (Accessed: 08 January 2026).
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