Navigating in the housing challenge: a case study in homelessness services

Session type:

Case Study

Presented by:

Yu-Hsuan Ho (Sharon)

Royal Borough of Greenwich Council

Vincent Lawal

Royal Borough of Greenwich Council

Emily Tulloh

Involve

Session time:

07 Mar 12:30 — 13:15

Session duration:

45 minutes

About the session

Homelessness persists as a longstanding social issue, one without a swift resolution. During the session, I aim to discuss our continuous learnings gained while tackling this complex challenge within local government. From understanding the problems, seeking alignments, shaping our service vision, to identifying opportunities for action, and, as service designers, orchestrating incremental but substantial transformations from within.

This session will aim to spark conversation on how we adapt our roles and ways of working to build connections and create conditions for change in a service context.

Participant takeaways:

Facilitating changes from a service design perspective
Learnings, challenges and changes implemented from a year of dedicated work within the homeless housing service

About the speaker(s)

Yu-Hsuan Ho (Sharon)

Sharon has worked in the public sector for 5 years with a background in Diplomacy. She joined the Royal Borough of Greenwich in 2021 and has been working in the Housing Inclusion Service since 2022.

Prior to her journey in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, she worked as a Service Designer in the central government and User Research in a Design Consultancy in Taiwan, conducting user research as well as facilitating design strategy with multidisciplinary teams to bring user experience and service integration to the centre of the design work that matches the user needs, business needs and technology constraints.

To advance her approach to unpacking complex problems from the systems lens, she completed her Master's degree in Service Design at the Royal College of Art and has since embarked on her journey in London.

yuhsuan_ho

Vincent Lawal

Vincent is the Head of Housing Inclusion and Support Services in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, leading three key service areas: Housing Inclusion (Homeless Services), the Disability and Home Improvement Service and Temporary Accommodation, Procurement & Allocations Service.

Vincent has 21 years’ experience in the Housing Sector and was previously working at Central Government (DLUHC) as a National Homelessness Advisor where he was tasked with providing best practice advice to 40 local authorities across England.

Vincent has led his services to implement a new homelessness software (Jigsaw) which has improved performance and customer engagement, and he has been working alongside Digital services on the ‘Find a Home’ project which aims to identify how to relieve pressure on staff and improve the experience of service users with housing needs. This is despite the huge challenge facing the service with increasing demand and acute shortage of suitable and affordable housing supply. Vincent is passionate about achieving positive outcomes for customers and leading an engaged and motivated workforce. He is currently working on adopting a strength-based and trauma-informed approach across the services he is responsible for.

Pronouns: He/Him

Emily Tulloh

With a background in service design and research, Emily has 10 years’ experience working with the public sector to design services that meet the needs of citizens. In 2023 she worked with the in-house team at Royal Borough of Greenwich to redesign their Housing Inclusion Service and support residents to find an affordable home.

Previously Emily worked as Climate Engagement Lead for London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, designing and managing a programme of public engagement projects to decarbonise the borough. Recently she joined Involve, the UK’s leading public participation charity, as Engagement Lead. As part of the Innovation & Practice team she leads major projects to embed participation and shared decision making within the public sector.

Pronouns: She/Her