Our staff

Homeless Link is led by Jenny Edwards as Chief Executive.  Jenny is responsible for the day-to-day running and management of the organisation and its people.  She is supported by a senior management team and staff based in London and each of the English regions.  Learn more about the management team and how to contact them below. 

Jenny Edwards, Chief Executive

Jenny Edwards is Chief Executive of Homeless Link, the only national charity supporting people and organisations working directly with homeless people in England.

Jenny chair’s the Mayor’s Homelessness Roundtable and the Conservatives’ Homelessness Foundation.  She is also a member of the Communities & Local Government’s Housing Sounding Board as well as the Mayor’s London Delivery Board.

Jenny was a member of the Communities Secretary’s Housing Reform Liaison Group, following the Hills Review, the Supporting People Sounding Board and the Housing Corporation's Advisory Panel on Vulnerable People. She has worked in the public sector in local government, the civil service, parliament and for the Arts Council. She ran the National Campaign for the Arts for 5 years and has been a board member in a range of voluntary sector organisations.
 

You can email Jenny via her PA, Luna Dizon, or call 020 7840 4426
 

Alex Botha, Deputy Chief Executive

Alex has been Homeless Link’s Deputy Chief Executive since May 2006. He has broad experience in finance and professional services. He qualified as a chartered accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, and has worked in investment banking (Structured Finance and Project finance), as an executive consultant in a major UK construction company and in the business turnaround team at Deloitte. Alex has an MBA from London Business School and a Masters in Development Management from the Open University.

You can email Alex or call him on 020 7840 4413.
 

MATT HARRISON, director of information services

Before the merger between Homeless Link and RIS, Matt was the Chief Executive of RIS. He joined RIS in 1990 and has worked on the whole range of directories, research reports, databases and online systems that we have developed over that time. Prior to working for RIS, Matt worked in advice services, day centres and hostels for homeless people for various organisations. Matt has a degree in IT and qualifications in Public Sector Management and Project Management. As Director of Information Services, he is most interested in developing innovative ways of using information and information technology to help deliver better services to homeless people and to contribute to ending homelessness.

You can email Matt or call him on 020 7840 4462.
 

Jacqui McCluskey, director of policy and knowledge

Jacqui joined Homeless Link in September 2009. Most recently she has worked in the arena of children’s policy, first as Senior Public Policy Officer at NCH (now Action for Children) and for the last three years at 11 MILLION, the organisation of the Children’s Commissioner for England, as Associate Director (Policy & Research). She has worked in a community based project in Glasgow working on housing and welfare rights and as a manager in a leaving care project.

Having worked as a Research Fellow at Stirling University on the first Scottish study on ethnic minority housing problems, Jacqui then moved to London and worked in a homelessness day centre and then as Research Manager at the homeless campaigning organisation CHAR.

Jacqui is a qualified social worker who has spent the majority of her working life in the voluntary/charity sector, apart from a spot of social working in Sydney, Australia.

You can email Jacqui or call her on 020 7840 4429.

JOE KENT, ACTING Director of Practice AND REGIONS

Joe Kent is acting Director of Practice and Regions. He is temporarily covering this position until a new person is appointed to this role until March 2010.  Joe has been the Homeless Link Regional Manager in Yorkshire and the Humber since August 2005. While covering the London based role, he will continue to monitor emails for the Yorkshire and Humber region, and cover some essential areas of work, but will not be able to respond to non-urgent or non-critical messages. 

The department of Practice and Regions provides information, support and guidance to both agencies and commissioners. A team of regional managers are the 'face' of Homeless Link across England and help to deliver the Government's 'Places of Change' programme and support local authorities who are trying to address the issue of moving people on from homelessness services. The Innovation and Good Practice team develop online information resources and undertake  practice-based projects that tackle sector-wide issues.

 Before this Joe worked as Service Development Manager in the Leeds Supporting People team with responsibility for service reviews and contracting with all the Supporting People client groups.  He has also managed the Leeds Housing and Community Care Project, developing and implementing a multi-agency strategy.  In the 1990s he managed the single homeless team at Leeds Housing Advice Centre and has also worked in the voluntary sector in Leeds as a hostel manager and a resettlement worker.
 

You can e mail Joe or call him on 020 7840 4466.