Charity No: 1164091
MUSEUM OF HOMELESSNESS ANNUAL REPORT AND INDEPENDENT EXAMINATION FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2021
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Contents
Chair of trustee’s statement, p.3
Charity details and overview, pp.4-5
Objectives and activities, pp.6-10
Financial Review, pp.11-12
Declaration, p.13
Enclosed with the trustee annual review and accounts are:
Independent Examiner’s report completed by Charlotte Ward
Financial statements for 2020-21
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Chair of Trustees statement
The past 12 months has been challenging for our community and wider society. We have gone through lockdowns and experienced loss and we have had to rethink what the role of the Museum of Homelessness is in the unfolding and changing landscape.
Despite the difficult backdrop we have achieved a huge amount over the past year and our staff and volunteers have worked tirelessly to deliver direct support at street level, as well as campaigning for policy change, challenging stereotypes and building our collection with our community.
We continue to work on the Dying Homeless Project to remember the stories and the lives of people who die homeless in the UK. As well as being a memorial, the project is also an ongoing campaign for change. Running death cafes has created an opportunity for people to speak about and remember those that they have lost, to process grief and to make sure that people are not forgotten.
At the beginning of the pandemic in the first national lockdown we worked with partners and volunteers to prepare and deliver thousands of care packs and hot meals to people in emergency accommodation and on the streets.
We also recognised that the winter lockdown would be incredibly tough for people living outside when most community facilities were closed and through our street solidarity programme we worked with partners to get essential supplies to people sleeping rough in London’s West End,.
As well as campaigning for change in policy and directly delivering with our community we have continued to develop our governance this year. We openly and transparently recruited new trustees and have increased the skills base and diversity of our board as a result. We have also become an employer and have, excitingly, started the search for a venue for the museum.
As we move into a new stage of development of the museum I am confident that we will continue to support our community, tell the rich and diverse history of homelessness, call out injustice and campaign for policy change. We welcome your support and solidarity on this journey.
Sharon Heal
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Charity details and overview
Trustees
Museum of Homelessness is governed by the board of trustees who meet on a quarterly basis, our trustee board for the period April 2020 – March 2021 was:
Fr Philip Bevan, (stepped down in March 2021)
Jane Cook
Sharon Heal, Chair of Trustees
Katie Langford
Richard Matthews
Nuala Timoney, Treasurer
Ruban Yogarajah
Board procedures
As per our constitution, all board meetings must take place with at least three people present.
The board meets at least four times per year. The board commit to at least one joint board and core group meeting in the year.
The board actively maintains the charity’s policies and procedures and has designated safeguarding and data protection trustees.
We maintain a trustee risk and conflict of interest register related to board appointments.
Trustee recruitment
Trustee invitations to join follow on from board discussion at meetings. The board consider suitability and skills needed for the role. The trustees commit to principles of open recruitment for future trustee positions.
Prospective trustees must attend one meeting as an observer before joining the board.
Once a trustee has been invited, the following procedure usually takes place:
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Relevant information will be sent to the prospective trustee including previous meeting minutes, strategic planning documents and policies
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Trustee information will be registered and with the charities commission.
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After they have had an opportunity to read the guidance and the following information, prospective trustees will be requested to make an appointment for an induction where more information will be shared.
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Staffing
Since beginning, the charity has operated largely through volunteering and later with freelance support for the organisation. In this reporting period, the board and Core Group were working towards the charity becoming an employer. Terms and Conditions were collaboratively drafted over the winter of 2020/2021. By the end of this financial year, the charity had developed a flat pay policy to be in place from April 2021 and to apply to all future staffing and freelance appointments.
“In order to actively create a more equitable world, Museum of Homelessness commits to a flat pay structure for all employees and freelancers. We will pay everyone the national average wage for museums (higher than the London Living Wage), no matter what their role is within the organisation. We review this policy annually.”
Co-founders Jess and Matt Turtle have delegated authority from the trustees to act as executive directors for MoH. The co-founders work closely with the Core Group report regularly to the board.
Core Group
The charity has a commitment to devolved decision-making and to ensuring that direct experience of homelessness is central to all aspects of our work.
To this end, the co-founders co-ordinate and are part of the MoH core group. This group meet regularly to discuss operations, projects, creative content and strategy for the museum. The group has at least 80% lived experience of homelessness. The group can make recommendations to the board of Trustees regarding the direction and programme of MoH. For example, the Core Group designed the employment terms and conditions in this period.
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Objectives and activities
The Charity’s objects are, for the public benefit:
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To advance education and undertake research on homelessness, including its history, causes, and impact, in particular but not exclusively by the provision of a museum on homelessness;
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To relieve the needs of people experiencing or who have experienced homelessness and others who are socially excluded in England and Wales, in particular but not exclusively by the provision of education, training, grants and accommodation.
For the purpose of objective 2 ‘socially excluded’ means being excluded from society, or parts of society, as a result of one or more of the following factors: unemployment, financial hardship, youth and old age, ill health (physical or mental), substance abuse or dependency including alcohol and drugs, poor educational skills attainment, relationship and family breakdown, poor housing (that is housing that does not meet basic habitable standards), crime (either as a victim of crime or as an offender rehabilitating into society).
The trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit and this informs all of our work.
Our Theory of Change, which was developed by the core group and the board of trustees in 2017, forms the basis for our work to tackle systemic prejudice and social stigma.
Like all organisations, MoH has been profoundly affected by the impacts of COVID19. The virus has led to the closures of day centres, hostels, street-level handouts and soup runs and led to a massive coordinated effort to secure and support accommodation as a public health measure (The ‘everyone in’ programme) For our museum work with the public and people affected by homelessness, the immediate effects of the pandemic led to:
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Swiftly repurposing all of our organisational efforts and resources. By 12[th] March we had paused all cultural and heritage projects, liaised with funders, stakeholders, grassroots partners and people who are homeless in order to make a plan for the charity to carry out only COVID related campaigning and direct action. This led to:
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Formation of the Homeless Taskforce with grassroots partners.
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Significant campaigning efforts to create a national action plan to allow people who are homeless to self-isolate
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Localised efforts to distribute care packs and carry out welfare checks for people across North London and central London.
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Activities
The coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on our usual operations. In previous reports, we have always detailed our activities based on three areas of activity — individual empowerment, institutional influence and public engagement.
This year the trustees are instead reporting against other major areas of activity: campaigning, mobilising and lockdown support for our communities.
We are delighted that our activities during this period received recognition. MoH was named as a Big Issue changemaker in January 2021 and we received a significant accolade in being named as an awardee for the inaugural Calouste Gulbenkian Award for Civic Arts organisations.
Campaigning and mobilisation
Early March 2020, we were running a solidarity drop in with our partners Streets Kitchen when we realised that if someone who street homeless presented with coronavirus symptoms, there would be nowhere for them to self-isolate. We quickly understood the risks that this posed to the community and the following day we began to plan. This has shaped our activity for the year.
Museum of Homelessness was therefore the first organisation, along with our partners Streets Kitchen and the Outside Project, to begin publicly campaigning about the significant risk to our community. We wrote to the Secretary of State and carried out a press campaign from 10[th] March.
From that point, we and our grassroots partners began to implement emergency measures to respond to the rapidly escalating situation with coronavirus. We quickly implemented a 3-pronged strategy:
Mobilise: Outreach safely to make up for a reduction in services. Provide food water sanitiser and reassurance.
Communicate: Facilitate meetings with relevant parties to plan together. Advocate: Make ‘asks’ of authorities and share knowledge on safe responses
Successes
This work involved outreach work on the ground, taking advice from medical professionals, and the publication of a national plan for homeless people to selfisolate in hotel rooms. The BBC, Big Issue, Inside Housing and the Independent covered the story, and this news reporting contributed to the eventual launch of the Everybody in scheme.
We facilitated the UK’s first homelessness taskforce , calling all commissioned services, community groups, grassroots activists and the local authority together within 24 hours to act in Islington. The local media covered the story, and we were
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successful in pushing for a borough wide meeting to discuss the implications of the virus. We later secured an in-kind venue from Islington Council as the base for the taskforce.
Through the taskforce, we then recruited and mobilised over 50 volunteers and developed quick, safe induction processes, so they could be deployed for food drops and outreach support. This taskforce secured a hub from Islington Council and got to work.
We have campaigned avidly on issues affecting our community as the pandemic unfolded. Particularly notable moments included:
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Working with The Magpie Project, The Outside Project and Streets Kitchen we submitted joint evidence to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government inquiry into the response to COVID-19 and homelessness on 30 April 2020
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Joining forces with Haringey Migrant Support Centre on 28 May 2020 to write a letter to the Secretary of State for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Containing 60 signatories from front-line community led groups and charities, the letter highlighted our opposition to Government plans to reinstate no recourse to public funds rules. The Manchester Evening News covered the story.
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Supported and signed a letter sent to Local Government dated 18 June 2020 sent from nearly 100 groups, councillors, and lawyers calling for Local Government responses to protect migrant lives during & after this public health crisis.
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Launching Museum of the Home Office on 30 August 2020 — a new street museum to call for an end to the hatred, poverty, and destitution caused by Home Office policies and the targeting of vulnerable people by far-right activists. We launched this stunt outside the Home Office.
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We held a weekly Streetmuseum after this launch throughout the late summer and autumn in 2020 until we had to stop because of the second lockdown Streetmuseum was featured as part of the BBC Arts Culture in Quarantine season in September 2020.
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Working with the BBC, we were featured in a BBC news slot about the deaths of homeless people in temporary accommodation with Rachel Stonehouse. This aired in early October 2020
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We focused strongly on SWEP provision in the summer and winter. We do not feel it was effective enough and too many people were outside in the freezing cold. The Homeless Taskforce secured a slot on ITV News regarding this on 29 January 2020. We were present on the streets throughout, providing thermals, socks, hand warmers, bivvies, sleeping bags, pods, and tents.
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Restarting the Dying Homeless Project with Miranda Keast joining as the project’s coordinator. On 22 February 2021 we released our findings for 2020, highlighting a 37% increase in the deaths of people that year. National and local press highlighted the findings, and they were the subject of a question asked from the opposition benches in the Houses of Parliament.
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We also launched our first Dying Homeless Project death café and coalition events.
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On 04 March 2021 we reported about cases of harassment taking place against someone sleeping rough in the West End. We teamed up with Liberty and the person involved, Martin Burns, to challenge Westminster Council and Northbank Business Improvement District for the harassment targeted at people sleeping out.
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On 31 March 2021 we submitted evidence to the Kerslake Commission, an independent body convened by Lord Kerslake to examine and learn the lessons from the emergency response to rough sleeping and homelessness during the pandemic.
Lockdown support for our community
During the reporting period, the UK was largely in a period of lockdown which varied in intensity but largely meant that we had to put our emphasis on direct work with people. This was especially a priority during the stricter lockdowns.
From 31[st] March to 28[th] June, Museum of Homelessness and Streets Kitchen ran a 7-day per lockdown operation.
From 8[th] November to 31 March, working with the Simon Community, we carried out street work on the streets of the West End 4 nights a week.
Our main focus was supporting the local authority to provide basic supplies to those they had brought into the ‘Everyone In’ accommodation. The main need in lockdown 1 was supporting this unprecedented initiative, for which systems were not in place yet.
Successes
we visited emergency accommodation and our friends on the streets supplying food, toiletries, essentials, referrals, support, and friendship whilst many services shut down. During lockdown 1 between April and June we distributed 8956 food and care packs across North London.
We were able to be very responsive and adapt to what the community needed. We recruited a Romanian-speaking volunteer who helped us build strong relationships with a group of 4 Roma men in the area.
In the Winter, we carried out ‘street solidarity’ as planned, 4 nights per week in the West End between November and Easter Monday. This meant 4774 cups of tea / sandwiches and bedtime check ins with people living outside over the period. More widely the Homeless Taskforce, including Streets Kitchen, we carried out the following in the winter period:
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4411 early morning breakfasts on the street in Camden
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7545 evening meals/ interactions across 9 boroughs
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We referred people into services where we could, or where they wanted a referral. Pathways into accommodation/services were very difficult to access.
Because the operation was small scale, and we are a relationship focused organisation, we tried to work in a person-centred way. Our hot meals were nutritious, but we also provide snacks and treats for people. On hot days we took frozen juice out, on cold days, hot soup. During the winter months we provided shoes and clothes on order and other items such as books. We provided pods and tents also, upon request.
Our approach focused on making this period as bearable as possible for people. We have found it is possible to share joyful moments together, even during this time. Over Easter Weekend, in 48 hours we distributed over 1,000 Easter Eggs in Islington and across London to people in emergency accommodation and on the streets. Many were delivered by the Taskforce Easter Bunny.
We carried out a large ‘survival stockpile’ event, where we handed sleeping bags and other crucial supplies to people who needed them. We gave out over 100 sleeping bags.
In March 2021, we teamed up with other taskforce partners and groups/organisations in Camden to pilot a grassroots vaccination programme. There is considerable hesitancy in the homeless population about the vaccine and working together, we set up a weekly drop-in in March in partnership with the Francis Crick Institute. Over 30 people received a vaccine through the project and the vaccine clinic is still running.
We are incredibly grateful to the offers of support and donations that we have received in the last year. Without it none of this work would have been possible.
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Financial Review
Museum of Homelessness requires a level of free reserves to safeguard the organisation, protect future development and achieve the following:
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To expand current and develop new initiatives in line with the changing needs of the homeless community,
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To ensure that delays in the receipt of expected income do not interrupt services or cause serious financial difficulty for the charity,
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To ensure the charity has the ability to survive unexpected setbacks and problems arising from internal or external causes.
The Museum of Homelessness is a young charity and currently building its reserves. Currently the policy is not to let reserves go below £5,000. Our aim for the future is to maintain reserves at 12 months of unrestricted expenditure in order to maintain services. This is a generous number of months but we have set this in recognition of significant instability and external risks to small charities in the present period.
The CIO is a registered charity, registration number 1164091. The Museum of Homelessness was constituted as a charity in October 2015 and opened its charity bank account in April 2016 with CAF Bank. The first financial year end was 30 June 2016.
The financial statements are prepared in accordance with the guidelines outlined by the Charity Commission for charities with a turnover under £1m. As such they have been examined by an Independent Examiner, the report is attached.
The accounts have been prepared on a going concern basis. Having considered the charities reserves position, future plans and forecasts and operating costs for the next 12 months, the Trustees consider that on this basis the charity is a going concern.
Income
Income is credited to the statement of financial activities on a cash basis. Restricted income from grants is accounted for separately.
£115,768 of income was carried forward to the current period.
Total income for the period was £191,987, broken down as:
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➢ Corporate Donors - £20,450
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➢ Individual Donations - £57,056
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➢ Trusts and Foundations - £114,481
Expenditure
Expenditure is currently accounted for on a cash basis. Expenditure for the period to 31 March 2021 was £102,824 with 8% designated to essential running costs. The
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rest of the expenditure was on direct charitable activities including our emergency work and volunteering costs.
‘Direct support’ relates to the following categories of expenditure:
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➢ Creative freelance work for people with experience of homelessness
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➢ Bursaries for people with experience of homelessness
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➢ Support with access requirements for people with experience of homelessness
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➢ Direct costs for projects and events where the funding has been raised directly to support an artist with experience of homelessness and where MoH is the producing organisation holding the funds.
MoH is committed to ensuring that our creative community members are given as much support as possible – this includes practical, emotional and financial support.
This period, the expansion of the charity’s activities was largely due to grants from the Oak Foundation (£46,200), The Linbury Trust (£10,000) The Isla Foundation (£25,080), Paul Hamlyn Foundation (£20,000) and The Fore (£9,900). In addition, we are grateful for the ongoing support of our founding corporate partner and the staff at Rede Partners who crowdfunded to support our emergency operations during the year (£20,000). In addition we received fantastic support from many generous individuals. We are very grateful to all our funders and supporters.
In the previous financial year, we set ourselves a target to diversify our fundraising through building on our success in bidding for funds from Trusts and Foundations and generating more earned income by delivering creative and educational work for partners. The increase in grants reflects our success in achieving these aims.
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Declaration
The Trustees declare that they have approved the trustees report, above.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
| Signature(s) Full name(s) Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc) Date |
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|---|---|---|
| Sharon Heal | ||
Chair |
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| 17.12.2021 | ||
| 17.12.2021 |
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| Museum of Homelessness | Museum of Homelessness | Museum of Homelessness | No (if any) | No (if any) | No (if any) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| For the period from |
01/04/2020 | To | 31/03/2021 | ||||
| Section A Receipts and payments | |||||||
| Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ 20,450 57,056 46,300 - - - - - - - - - - 123,806 123,806 1,593 32,449 4,067 20 5,030 69 - - - - - - - - 43,228 - - - 43,228 80,577 53,137 133,715 |
Restricted funds to the nearest £ - - 68,182 - - - - - - - - - - 68,182 68,182 - 33,641 24,774 1,181 - - - - - - - - - - 59,596 - - - 59,596 8,586 62,631 71,217 |
Endowment funds to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
Total funds to the nearest £ 20,450 57,056 114,482 - - - - - - - - - - 191,987 191,987 1,593 66,090 28,840 1,202 5,030 69 - - - - - - - - 102,824 - - - 102,824 89,163 |
Last Period to the nearest £ |
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| A1 Receipts Corporate Donors Individual Donations Trusts and Foundations Earned Income |
|||||||
| 20,450 | 10,350 | ||||||
| 57,056 | 22,981 | ||||||
| 46,300 | 68,400 | ||||||
| - | 2,481 | ||||||
| - | - | ||||||
| - | - | ||||||
| - | - | ||||||
| - | - | ||||||
| - | - | ||||||
| - | - | ||||||
| - | - | ||||||
| - | - | ||||||
| - | - | ||||||
| Sub total | 123,806 | 104,211 | |||||
| **Total receipts ** | |||||||
| 104,211 | |||||||
| A3 Payments Communications and digital Events, projects and exhibitions Direct support Travel and subs Rent and overheads Bank Charges Insurance |
|||||||
| 1,593 | 2,211 | ||||||
| 32,449 | 47,128 | ||||||
| 4,067 | 8,965 | ||||||
| 20 | 4,916 | ||||||
| 5,030 | 6,498 | ||||||
| 69 | 45 | ||||||
| - | 943 | ||||||
| - | - | ||||||
| - | - | ||||||
| - | - | ||||||
| - | - | ||||||
| - | - | ||||||
| - | - | ||||||
| - | - | ||||||
| 43,228 | 70,706 | ||||||
| A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) | |||||||
| - | |||||||
| - | |||||||
| **Sub total ** | - | - | |||||
| Total payments Net of receipts/(payments) A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end Cash funds this year end |
|||||||
| 70,706 | |||||||
| 80,577 | 8,586 | - | 89,163 | 33,505 | |||
| - | - | - | |||||
| 53,137 | 62,631 | - | 115,768 | 82,263 | |||
| 133,715 | 71,217 | - | 204,932 | 115,768 |
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
14/12/2021
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Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| Unrestricted | Restricted | Endowment | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Details | funds | funds | funds | ||||
| to nearest £ | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | |||||
| CAF Bank Account | 133,715 | 71,217 | - | ||||
| - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | |||||
| Total cash funds | 133,715 | 71,217 | - | ||||
| (agree balances with receipts and payments | |||||||
| account(s)) | OK | OK | OK | ||||
| Unrestricted | Restricted | Endowment | |||||
| funds | funds | funds | |||||
| Details | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | ||||
| - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - |
Categories
| Details | Unrestricted funds to nearest £ |
Restricted funds to nearest £ |
Endowment funds to nearest £ |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B1 Cash funds B2 Other monetary assets B3 Investment assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B5 Liabilities |
CAF Bank Account | 133,715 | 71,217 | - |
| - | - | - | ||
| - | - | - | ||
| 133,715 | 71,217 | - | ||
| OK | ||||
| Endowment funds to nearest £ |
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| - | - | |||
| - | - | |||
| - | - | |||
| - | - | |||
| - | - | |||
| - | - | |||
| Details Details Details Signature |
Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - - - - - Fund to which liability relates Amount due (optional) - - - - - Print Name |
Current value (optional) |
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| - | ||||
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| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| Current value (optional) |
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| When due (optional) |
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| Date of approval |
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CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
14/12/2021
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