Rethinking Homelessness Services: A Call for Change in The Salvation Army

Rethinking Homelessness Services: A Call for Change in The Salvation Army

For over a hundred years, The Salvation Army in the United Kingdom and Ireland has provided vital homelessness services. In more recent history, these services have often been funded through contracts with Local Authorities. These contracts usually dictate how services operate, setting financial limits, service models, and key performance indicators (KPIs). While they ensure some level of support and accommodation is available, they also present significant challenges—challenges that make me question whether this is still the right model to be used.

The Problem with Contracted Services

At first glance, contracts appear to offer stability and reduce risk. They provide funding, structure, and a framework for homelessness service provision. However, they also force providers—charities, faith groups, and housing associations—into a competitive business model that simply doesn’t work for a people-focused sector. Instead of collaboration, the system usually encourages organisations to undercut each other, vying to deliver the best service for the lowest price.

This results in:

• Limited flexibility – Services are restricted by contracts that don’t always meet the real needs of people.

• Unsustainable funding – Charities and faith groups like The Salvation Army often use their own charitable income to cover gaps in provision that contracts won’t fund.

• A focus on outputs, not outcomes – Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) measure statistics, not transformation. They don’t capture the power of hope, faith, and relationship.

But perhaps most importantly, the contracted model often fails to acknowledge the deep trauma that many people experiencing homelessness carry with them, acknowledging this is a sweeping statement and does not apply to all contracted provision.

Understanding Trauma and Homelessness

Homelessness is rarely just about a lack of housing. It is deeply connected to trauma, often rooted in Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)—such as abuse, neglect, household dysfunction, or exposure to violence. Research shows that people who experience multiple ACEs are far more likely to face mental health challenges, substance use issues, unstable relationships later in life, and end up experiencing homelessness. 

For many, homelessness is a symptom of deep, unresolved pain. The traditional contracted model of service provision often fails to address this. Instead, it focuses on short-term solutions—providing a roof, managing risk, and moving people through systems as quickly as possible. But trauma doesn’t heal through efficiency. It heals through relationship, stability, and community.

This is why Trauma-Informed Practice (TIP) and Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE) are essential in homelessness services. These approaches recognise that:

• People’s behaviours are often shaped by past trauma. Responses to authority, difficulty maintaining relationships, and struggles with addiction are often coping mechanisms developed in response to past experiences.

• Healing requires safety, trust, and consistency. People need spaces where they feel valued, not judged—where they are known, not just processed through a system.

• Community is essential. Loneliness and isolation often perpetuate cycles of homelessness. True belonging and relational connection can break this cycle.

The Salvation Army’s Distinctive Mission

The Salvation Army is not just another homelessness provider. We are a Christian movement with a mission to support the whole person—physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. Our greatest strengths are faith, community, and relationship. Or, as I like to call it, grace and embrace. These are also the foundations of trauma-informed practice.

We believe in the power of transformation—not just through housing and services but through love, dignity, hope, and salvation. Contracts don’t allow for this in a meaningful way. KPIs don’t measure healing. Targets don’t capture the impact of a relationship built on trust.

We need to move beyond transactional services and towards relational support, where people aren’t just accommodated but embraced into community.

A Call for Corps-Led (Church-Led) Homelessness Support

I suggest the time has come for The Salvation Army to rethink how we approach homelessness. We need to move towards a Corps-led model, where local churches take the lead in providing homelessness support.

Imagine if every Salvation Army Corps across the UK and Ireland had a homelessness-focused initiative based on community, relationship, and faith—all key principles of trauma-informed care.

This would mean:

• A focus on belonging, not just accommodation. A community where people feel known, valued, and connected.

• Holistic support that acknowledges trauma. Helping people move forward by addressing the deep pain that led to homelessness, not just providing housing.

• Spaces of grace and salvation, not just services. A place where people are loved as they are, where they are given the time and support needed to rebuild.

We are already seeing glimpses of what this could look like:

• Malachi Place in Ilford – providing long-term housing solutions with built-in community support. And similar projects in Basildon and Southend. 

• Corps-led or integrated day centres in Blackpool and Westminster – offering relationship-based support beyond what contracts allow.

These models, and many others, show that faith-driven, community-led homelessness support is not just an idea—it’s already happening. Now, we need to expand this across The Salvation Army.

Overcoming the Challenges

There are, of course, practical hurdles—financial risks, legal considerations, and issues around buildings and land use. But these are not insurmountable. If we are serious about our mission, we need to step out in faith, find creative solutions, and reclaim our place as a movement that prioritises loving God and loving others above all else.

A Bold Step Forward

The Salvation Army has always been at its best when it moves in faith, not just in strategy. When it places people above risk. The current contracted model is limiting our potential. It’s time to return to the heart of our mission—to be a people of faith, building relationships, and transforming lives through the power of Jesus.

A trauma-informed, community-led approach to homelessness is not just an option. It is a necessity.

Now is the time to change. Now is the time to step forward.

The question is—are we ready?