A decade on: Gill Brown, Brighter Futures

Gill Brown, CEO of Brighter Futures, has been working in the homelessness sector for over 20 years... Here, she reflects on the sector's achievements over the last decade and considers the challenges now facing homelessness services and looks at what needs to happen next.

Have you ever been homeless?  
Yes

What do you think are the biggest milestones / achievements of the homelessness sector over the past 10 years?

• The target to reduce rough sleeping by two thirds and reducing the number of people in temporary accommodation
• The numbers of people supported to achieve and maintain their independence
• The reports that show what great value for money we are and how much money our services save
• CLG appointing Rough Sleepers Champions and the Housing Corporation's Gold Award for Tackling Homelessness demonstrate how our influence has grown.

And the disappointments?

• The Government abandoning the national Supporting People programme
• PSA 16 was not about excluded groups with complex needs
• We've still got a long way to go in the discussion around complex needs.

What do you hope will happen in the next ten years?
That our services will survive the cuts! I also hope that Government and third sector relationships improve. I'd also like to see 'complex needs' recognised and more joint work between statutory agencies and homelessness agencies to address these issues.

How has your work and / or organisation changed over the years?
Immensely. The biggest change is developing the passion for creative solutions to ensure we empower our customers, drive for equality and celebrate diversity, whilst building a sustainable organisation.

We've analysed what we do in order to improve our performance, we've not been afraid to admit our mistakes, learn and get it right.

What's next for the homelessness sector? What are the challenges now?
We need to continue driving the learning and change in the sector and further improve our understanding around how to effectively empower people so that they achieve more independence. 

I think we also need to learn more about the impact of the quality of the physical environment... I think there is a connection between the environment and self esteem and aspiration.  Let's have a clean hostels campaign and consign the black sack of "stuff" to the dustbin of history!

How can we prevent more people from ending up homeless in the future?
Homelessness is a destination when other things go wrong. People with the most complex needs are failed by services. Prevention and early intervention, and services focussed on the needs of the customer, not the system or the inspectorate, are crucial.

Policy makers also need new and better tools of identifying and understanding the needs of vulnerable people.

Find out more

To find out more about Brighter Futures visit: www.brighter-futures.org.uk