Smart Data Foundry joins Homewards' Homelessness Data Lab

^{Image provided by The Royal Foundation}

Smart Data Foundry has joined the Homelessness Data Lab, a new national collaboration launched by Prince William's Homewards programme and delivered in partnership with LandAid and Salesforce. The launch is being marked through a partnership with London Tech Week, bringing data and technology into the conversation on homelessness prevention. 

The Homelessness Data Lab was established by The Royal Foundation to address a persistent gap in how data and technology are used in homelessness prevention. Since its launch in 2003, Homewards’ work with the sector and local partners has identified that homelessness is rarely sudden, with pressures often building long before someone loses their home. However, services can be limited in their ability to identify and respond to those early warning signs. The Data Lab brings together 25 organisations across business, government, local authorities, and the homelessness sector to explore how data and technology can bridge that gap. 

As part of its involvement, Smart Data Foundry is providing five Homewards partner locations with access to its Economic Wellbeing Explorer, a tool that helps local authorities and NGOs understand the financial pressures facing residents in their areas. Through an innovative data partnership with NatWest Group, the tool uniquely draws on anonymised data to show localised trends in financial vulnerability in near real-time. The aim is to support services in building a clearer picture of economic vulnerability within their communities, contributing to earlier and more coordinated responses to support those at risk of losing their homes. 

Dougie Robb, CEO Smart Data Foundry said: 

We know that financial stress is one of the clearest early indicators of homelessness risk, but that signal is often invisible to the services best placed to deliver a preventative intervention. The Economic Wellbeing Explorer uses local-level, near real-time financial data, built up from real financial behaviours. We're contributing it to the Homelessness Data Lab because we think it can genuinely change what's possible for homelessness prevention. 

In the longer term, Smart Data Foundry believes that better access to financial data has the potential to fundamentally change how public services identify and respond to vulnerability; shifting the focus from crisis management to genuine prevention. The Homelessness Data Lab represents an important step in demonstrating what that can look like in practice.