Working together to tackle homelessness
From prevention to impact, simplified.
The problem
The huge amount of admin, evidence collection and time spent chasing missed appointments means councils can miss opportunities for prevention. It can feel like a losing battle trying to respond to everyone who presents with homeless approach in time, which is particularly challenging with the backdrop of increasing presentations.
A way forward
Lightning Reach helps homelessness teams to save thousands of hours and increase prevention duties by simplifying the process of homelessness applications.
10%
increase in homelessness presentations
123k
households in temporary accommodation
2bn
annual cost of temporary accommodation to UK councils
How it works
1 Prevent homelessness
Self-serve homelessness support, in Lightning Speed. Lightning Reach’s self-serve portal quickly connects residents to personalised financial and housing support, all in one place. This empowers them to stay housed and avoid financial-driven homelessness.
2 Automated pathways
Dynamic automated pathways, based on profile data. Triage questions and evidence requests which adjust automatically based on responses. This ensures people are directed to the right support and helped according to their need, enabling fast and effective service with only valid homelessness applications being seen by triage officers.
3 Streamline admin
Stop chasing and win the paperwork battle. Gather evidence and documentation upfront, use Open Banking to securely and seamlessly gather proof of income, utilise digital ID verification for automated ID checks, and benefit from automated team assignment.
4 Welfare support
Break the cycle of recurring homelessness. Person centred support matches. Effective signposting for self-serve financial and housing help. ‘Tell it once’ approach. Support worker functionality to apply on behalf of digitally excluded users.
£700
average
award
Key benefits & impact to date
-
Increase prevention duties by accelerating speed to support
-
Highlight urgent cases to better prioritise caseload
-
Reduce missed or rescheduled appointments with upfront evidence collection
-
Prevent need for approaches and record detailed impact reporting of the intervention
-
Save 1-2 hours of admin per approach
-
Automated reporting, on per caseworker level
180k
individuals
registered
£20m
support
awarded
£14m
benefits
identified
Trusted partner to
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Success stories
"Lambeth Council is proud to partner with Lightning Reach to streamline homelessness applications, ensuring residents access support early, before crises escalate. This proactive approach helps prevent homelessness and aligns with our commitment to sustainable, long-term solutions. Our collaboration is already showing early success, and we’re excited for even greater impact."
Chris Flynn, Director of Housing Needs, Lambeth Council.
“To go from nowhere to getting support was incredible. It relieves so much stress."​
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Military veteran Luke and his pregnant partner went from being street homeless, to receiving thousands in support through the Lightning Reach portal.