ProxyAddress: using location data to reconnect those facing homelessness with support services

摘要

In the past nine years, housing benefit has not risen in line with increasing private rents and has now been frozen at 2016 levels until 2020, no matter the increase in local market rates. As such, the leading cause of the UK's growing rate of homelessness is the end of an assured shorthold tenancy. When a family, a couple, or an individual lose their home as a result, not only do they lose their shelter but also their permanent address: a piece of information originally intended to organise the built environment but now used as a de facto means of identification. This immediately cuts off access to key services and support that might otherwise provide recovery and prevent a downward spiral into entrenchment and the development of issues relating to mental health or substance abuse that can follow. With a shortage of public-sector housing, funding, and resources, the architectural profession stands uniquely placed to use its understanding of the built environment to help ensure those who live in it are not excluded by it. The ProxyAddress project aims to intervene in this situation by connecting together existing data and systems, providing the information needed to access key services following the loss of a permanent address. Through direct dialogue with those affected and analysis of the current postal, financial, and public sector systems, the project questions the nature of the addressing lens through which we organise the built environment and identifies opportunities to mitigate the negative impact felt by those who are currently marginalised by it.