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2022-03-31-accounts

Charity No: 1164091

MUSEUM OF HOMELESSNESS ANNUAL REPORT AND INDEPENDENT EXAMINATION FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2022

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Contents

Chair of trustee’s statement, p.3

Charity details and overview, p. 4

Objectives and activities, p. 6

Financial Review, p. 12

Organisational Development, p.14

Declaration, p.15

Enclosed with the trustee annual review and accounts are:

Independent Examiner’s report

Financial statements for 2021-22

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Chair of Trustees statement

As society has begun to emerge tentatively from the Covid pandemic, our tireless staff and volunteers at the Museum of Homelessness have been able to switch delivery from our emergency response towards strategic planning and the development of the charity.

Over the past year we have continued to support our community, working in partnership with other organisations to make sure that our interventions are targeted to where we can have most impact. And we have also developed our creative and campaigning responses.

One of the highlights of the past year was the development of the Secret Museum. This award-winning, immersive and influential exhibition took the public on a journey of awareness, through the streets of London, to a place where the voices and stories of homeless people were put centre stage.

We have also continued to develop the Dying Homeless Project, which tragically recorded 1286 deaths in 2021. We will continue to do this important work of public record and personal testimony.

Our small charity has expanded to welcome four new trustees this year who bring rich experience and diversity and, together with our community, we have supported the creation of a new three-year strategic plan for the museum.

The cost of living crisis will put a huge burden on many people throughout the UK. We can expect to see a rise in homelessness as incomes are squeezed and the already under-resourced housing sector comes under more pressure. There has never been a more urgent need for the type of work that MOH can do: powerful and people-centred storytelling; awareness raising and campaigning; and solutionfocussed direct action.

In our new strategic plan, as well as carrying on this work, we have set an ambition to find a home for the museum. We are determined that the building will be a creative asset that is co-produced with our community and that it will provide space for campaigning, creativity, reflection and support.

It has been my honour to work with the Museum of Homelessness over the course of 2021-2022 and I very much look forward to the new developments and the work we will do together with our community over the coming year.

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 2021 – March 2022 was:

Aderonke Apata (appointed in the period)

Jane Cook

Stephanie Grohmann (Appointed in the period)

Sharon Heal, Chair of Trustees

Katie Langford

Richard Matthews (stepped down in the period)

Rachael Minott (appointed in the period)

Martha Spurrier (appointed in the period)

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:

  1. Relevant information will be sent to the prospective trustee including previous meeting minutes, strategic planning documents and policies

  2. Trustee information will be registered and with the charities commission.

  3. 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.”

In the period co-founders Jess Turtle and Matt Turtle we appointed as co-directors of Museum of Homelessness. The co-directors 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-directors 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.

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Objectives and activities

The Charity’s objects are, for the public benefit:

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. This was revised during the year, and a new strategic plan developed. This will come into effect in the next financial year (2022-23)

Activities

Over the last year, as things changed with the pandemic and after the crisis of the winter lockdown, we shifted out of emergency response mode. We refocused on two key areas that had been paused when the pandemic hit:

Like all organisations, MoH has been profoundly affected by the impacts of COVID19. 2020 saw us undertake significant activity to support people directly impacted by the instability caused by the pandemic. This is included intensive “on the ground” frontline work to provide food, essentials, and other pastoral support for people.

The first quarter of the 2021-22 period saw a significant easing of lockdown restrictions as per the Government’s roadmap out of lockdown, which led to a full end of all restrictions in July 2021. The shift saw many grassroots homelessness groups and major charities resume their operations and we made the conscious

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decision that our charity should not be taken by ‘mission drift’ but should reflect on our strategic development.

Our community and board worked together throughout the period to develop a new strategic plan for Museum of Homelessness. However, it is worth noting we have continued to carry out post-lockdown activity to support our community, but it has been more specific and targeted. We operated a rapid response approach, piloting for example street clinics for Roma rough sleepers to access the EU Settled Status Scheme and Street Vaccine clinics.

In addition, during the year, MoH staged its largest creative object story-collection project to-date, Secret Museum.

In previous reports, we have always detailed our activities based on three areas of activity — individual empowerment, institutional influence and public engagement. Last year we had to change this as public engagement work could not take place in the usual way.

This year, the trustees are pleased to be able to report against these major areas of activity again, as well as include details of wider organisational development.

Individuals – Post-lockdown support for our communities.

Institutional – Research & campaigning

Public engagement – Creative & cultural work

We are delighted that our activities during this period received recognition. MoH’s Secret Museum was shortlisted for temporary exhibition of the year at the upcoming Museums and Heritage Awards. We also received another Outside Project community award for raising voices. The award was collected by our Creative associate Bullring Bash.

Individuals – Post-lockdown support for our communities

Community advocacy:

Including intensive support for four community members over several months, working closely with them to advocate, challenge decisions, involve 3[rd] parties and provide financial and other pastoral support.

Targeted support:

Partnerships with Public Interest Law Centre, Sistah Space, Coffee Afrik, and Liberty Investigates relating to cases of individual campaigning and advocacy. Our most sustained activity included working closely with Public Interest Law Centre and Streets Kitchen to provide street level legal rights advice and support for non-UK nationals to make pre-settled status applications to the Home Office before the late June deadline. This involved working with a group of Roma people sleeping outside on Warren Street particularly. This group was facing a high degree of difficulty

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including and harassment from transport police and council officers. We supported 30 people during this process.

Creative engagement:

Throughout the year, we held numerous creative sessions to prepare for our Secret Museum project. This included outdoor workshops at Showerbox, St Giles and StreetsFest in Finsbury Park, engaging over 200 people.

We also engaged with 50 volunteers to become street crew for our Secret Museum event, an immersive outdoor and indoor timed experience that took place in the Waterloo area in October. 50% of the cast and crew for Secret Museum had some form of lived experience. Street crew members performed a variety of significant roles in the show, from performance through to setup and breakdown tasks.

We also saved time for the fun stuff. This included a volunteer thank you event in St James’s Park in early 2022 for Secret Museum, and MoH core team outings to Rochester and Bedford to see the work of MoH’s creative associates in action.

Institutional – Research & campaigning

Project Fortify:

Much of the period was spent carrying out research and direct support work as part of Project Fortify, a campaigning project responding to the treatment of refugees and Asylum seekers by the far-right and their links with Government policy. Through this work, we generated activities that secured six pieces of press for the work, including a project write-up from our investigator for the Project, Samir Jeraj, in the Byline Times.

We have connected with many groups and organisations working in this space through this work. This includes the Da’aro Youth, Thousand for £1000, Channel Rescue, NACCOM, Human for Rights Network, Scottish Refugee Council, Sistah Space, Roma Support Group, Public Interest Law Centre, Liberty, Streets Kitchen, the Simon Community, Asylum Matters, Refugees for Justice, RAMFAEL, Magpie Project, Paper Cup Project, South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group, Asylum Link and St Mungo's. We also joined a Department of Levelling Up task and finish group to directly influence policymakers.

In March 2022, we published Toxic: Homelessness and Social Media at a time of global upheaval. Speakers from Public Interest Law Centre, Sistah Space, Roma Support Group and Media Diversified responded to our investigation into the far-right and its impact on perceptions around migration and homelessness. Over 100 people booked from the launch and attendees came from a broad variety of sector bodies including Shelter, Crisis, Solace Women’s Aid, Streets Kitchen, the Outside Project, the Wallich, Homeless Link, Action Aid and many others. The Big Issue covered the report launch.

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The Dying Homeless Project:

During the year we continued to develop the Dying Homeless Project, hosting four death café events and four coalition meetings, reaching 122 people in total, many of whom are contributing to the project and research. We have developed links with a wide variety of people through the coalition work in particular. During 2021, we hosted Feed Our Homeless Dublin and the work of a group of Manchester lawyers, who are attempting to change policy and law around the inquest process. We teamed up with the latter group to contribute to a guide that they published on the inquest process for bereaved families in September 2021. In addition, we also worked closely to support the annual memorial service at St Martin-in-the-Fields, held in November, helping to source speakers and contributing to efforts to organise the day.

We also continued our work to record deaths across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Sadly, The Dying Homeless Project recorded 1286 people in 2021. This was a 32% increase on the numbers reported in our 2020 study – and a staggering 80% increase over the number we published in 2019. The statistics included people sleeping rough, as well as those placed in emergency accommodation and other insecure settings. Each fatality was verified by a freedom of information request, coroners’ report, charity, or family member.

To mark the occasion, we held a vigil outside Downing Street and one on the steps of Islington Town Hall earlier in the day. The findings were reported widely, including a feature on ITV News and high-profile local and national press.

Other campaigning and advocacy: MoH are a recognised voice on social issues relating to both museums and homelessness. During the year we presented at events held by Disability Arts Online and major conference at the Museums Association and the Alberta Museums Association (where we were keynote speakers). We also added our voice to protest against hostile legislation such as the Police, Crime and Courts Sentencing Bill, as well as efforts to change the Human Rights Act. MoH community members also attended Drive to Survive Protests in support of GRT communities and Trans Pride.

Public engagement – Creative & cultural work

Our creative and cultural work was delivered as part of our commitment to completing Reframe the Narrative. Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, this project was reshaped to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and the experiences of our community. We commissioned two artists and staged Secret Museum – our largest production to date.

Secret Museum

Much of the year was spent planning, developing and delivering Secret Museum. The production was an immersive experience, taking place in London’s streets and a secret location that people had to find as part of a group. We staged 33 performances, collecting 12 objects from around the UK. The show shared the first-

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hand accounts of people who are homeless, community groups and others at the sharp edge of inequality whose stories are rarely heard. Secret Museum took place in October and November 2021.

Secret Museum sought to reveal the truth of what happened to people on the margins during the pandemic. It sought to go beyond the confines of the show itself, and people were sent pre-show packs from the moment they booked. Meeting at the old site of London’s cardboard city in the underpasses where the Bullring once sat, it blended a series of experiences at street level, shared first and shed light on the underground organising that sought to save lives and uphold the rights of the UK’s most vulnerable people.

Audiences were asked how they would describe the event to a friend. Comments included:

“A new format for museums that combines scavenger hunt with indoor performances that bring objects to life”

“A poignant, unconventional and radical ‘museum’ experience focussing on marginalised voices”

“Moving, powerful, an act of solidarity and defiance. An opportunity to learn about what many would prefer staying hidden”.

Secret Museum was covered by City AM, Museums Journal, and was named as one of Time Out’s top 10 things to do that weekend. At the time of writing, the show has been shortlisted for temporary exhibition of the year at the Museums and Heritage Awards (under £80,000 category)

Artistic commissions

As part of the project, we commissioned two sets of artists, Gobscure & Lindsay Nicholson and Jacob V. Joyce, to commission new works. This is the first time that we have commissioned the work of artists. Both sets of artists are creating participatory artworks on broad themes of reframing, renewal and survival outside statutory services and systems of oppression.

Cruising Beyond Alienation with Jacob V. Joyce:

MoH commissioned Jacob to develop a new idea, Cruising Beyond Alienation. This huge fabric mural was co-created through a series of workshops with participants. The sessions were an invitation for people to reclaim their narratives, their bodies, and their space through art making, discussion and games.

The commission also allowed Jacob, and MoH, to forge connections with a range of interesting groups and organisations. A workshop organised as part of the commission brought together: Land in Our Names (a group that is buying up land to help ensure people of colour have access to green spaces); House of Shango (a Black, Queer-led squat based in Brixton); a Black led choir; an anti-colonial cinema collective; the magazine Skin Deep; an architecture collective; and another community engaged arts collective. The workshops enabled them to deepen connections, explore shared interests in anti-colonialism, displacement, and the

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privatisation of public space, and identify links between these topics and the history of homelessness. At the time of writing, future workshops are planned at the Whitechapel Gallery and Glasgow Women’s Library.

Made Manual, with Gobscure and Lindsay Nicholson:

Inspired by Håkan Geijer’s Riot Medicine, a free manual for practising insurrectionary medicine, Gobscure and Lindsay Nicholson wanted to create a multi-authored survival manual for a post-lockdown world. Ten artists were commissioned to provide a range of contributions including visual essays, rants, spoken word, checklists, and other text-based contributions.

Contributors included David Tovey, Milly Gumm Ali, MDA Shorts, Nickie MilesWildin, Maria Thomas, S.L Page, Padma Rao, Dolly Sen, Mhairi Braden and purplestatesofmind. The manual was published in autumn 2021 and copies were distributed at Secret Museum.

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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:

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.

£191,987 of income was carried forward to the current period.

Total income for the period was £109,252 broken down as:

Expenditure

Expenditure is currently accounted for on a cash basis. Expenditure for the period to 31 March 2022 was £198,627. The increase in expenditure for this period accounts

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for spending on projects where funds were received in previous years but not spent until this period. In particular, the Isla Foundation and National Lottery Heritage Fund grants for Project Fortify and Reframe the Narrative. The 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:

MoH is committed to ensuring that our creative community members are given as much support as possible – this includes practical, emotional and financial support.

A note on restricted funds for 2021 – 2022: Our end of year cash balance shows that we are ran a £6,046.00 deficit. This can be explained by necessary expenditure relating to the Secret Museum (National Lottery Heritage Fund) project, without having all of the funds from the grant-making organisation. At the time of closing the accounts, a payment of £9,900 payment for this project was outstanding and scheduled to be paid in the 2022-23 financial year.

Our end of year funds balance of £115,556 reflects a years’ worth of operating costs with no project spend to come in the coming financial year. This is part of a conscious strategy aimed at reorienting the charity’s activities post-lockdown to move from an office based mobile operation to a building based operation with more regular activity and a larger turnover.

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Organisational development

We have dedicated a significant amount of work during the 2021 and 2022 so that we can embark on an ambitious period of development for the charity. This is thanks to our new strategic plan, which was co-produced between our board and our community over the whole of 2021.

New plan for 2022 – 2025

At the heart of this new phase of development for MoH is our new strategic plan. This plan sets out our vision for the next phase as Museum of Homelessness transitions from ‘start up’ phase through ‘growth phase.’ This plan shares our approach, our commitment to our four strands of work, and how we will deliver on them. These strands of work – educate on homelessness, take practical action today, fight injustice and make tomorrow’s history – will guide everything that MoH does. The arts, creativity, and heritage are woven through each strand, driving our approach to the work.

New trustees

To support us in our development, we have recruited four new remarkable trustees – Aderonke Apata, Stephanie Grohmann, Rachael Minott, and Martha Spurrier. Our new trustees bring a wealth of personal, professional and campaigning experience and we look forward to working with them on this exciting phase in our development.

The period also saw the departure of two amazing trustees. Fr Pip Bevan has stood down after an amazing three years, in which his huge wealth of experience in the homelessness field and incredible wisdom were a huge asset to the board. We also said goodbye to founding trustee Richard Matthews whose expertise in comms and marketing have been essential to us. They will both be hugely missed.

Our new space

After seven years of popping up in various short-term spaces and two years of delivering emergency responses and artistic work on the street whilst we search for a secure home, we have a fantastic opportunity. In 2021 we developed discussions to make a permanent home in partnership with a North London council, in a community asset in a park. We have attended numerous meetings, developed relationships with stakeholders and funders about the proposed move.

Therefore in our new strategic plan, we have set out our ambitions. Over the next three years we will; open and pilot a new creative community asset in our new space, employ people with experience of homelessness in key creative and community building roles, commission exceptional artists to make participatory work, deepen our campaigning and influencing work and test a new business model for Museum of Homelessness. Our aim is to complete our move to the new building in the next financial year.

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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
Sharon Heal


Chair
8/12/2022
8/12/2022

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Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report

Report to the trustees/ Charity Name Museum of Homelessness members of

On accounts for the year 31/03/2022 Charity no 1164091 ended (if any) Set out on pages Page 1-2 Receipts & Payments Accounts (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/03/2022 .

I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have examiner's statement come to my attention ( ~~other than that disclosed below~~ *) in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed: Date:

Name: Charlotte Ward

Relevant professional ICAEW (4295523) qualification(s) or body (if any):

Address: Flat 1, 41 Allfarthing Lane, London, SW18 2AP

Section B Disclosure

Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).

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October 2018

IER

Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .

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October 2018

IER

----- Start of picture text -----
Museum of Homelessness No (if any)
Receipts and payments accounts
For the period 01/04/2021 31/03/2022
To
from
Section A Receipts and payments
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
Total funds Last Period
funds funds funds
to the nearest
to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
£
A1 Receipts
Corporate Donors 10,000 - - 10,000 20,450
Individual Donations 27,165 - - 27,165 57,056
Trusts and Foundations 27,200 42,200 - 69,400 114,482
Earned Income 2,687 - - 2,687 -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
Sub total 67,052 42,200 - 109,252 191,987
Total receipts 67,052 42,200 - 109,252 191,987
A3 Payments
Communications and digital 838 384 - 1,222 1,593
Events, projects and exhibitions 1,410 87,121 - 88,531 66,090
Direct support 7,939 960 - 8,899 28,840
Travel and subs 2,406 870 - 3,276 1,202
Rent and overheads 8,989 - - 8,989 5,030
Bank Charges 102 - - 102 69
Fees 3,725 15,980 - 19,705 -
Salaries 53,755 14,148 - 67,903 -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
79,164 119,463 - 198,627 102,824
A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table)
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total [ - ] - - - -
Total payments 79,164 119,463 - 198,627 102,824
Net of receipts/(payments) (12,112) (77,263) - (89,376) 89,163
A5 Transfers between funds - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end 133,715 71,217 - 204,932 115,768
Cash funds this year end 121,602 (6,046) - 115,556 204,932
----- End of picture text -----

CCXX R1 accounts (SS)

19/12/2022

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Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
Categories
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
Details
Total cash funds
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
Details
Details
Details
Details
Signature		 Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
funds
to nearest £
to nearest £
121,602
(6,046)
-
-
-
-
121,602
(6,046)
OK
OK
Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
funds
to nearest £
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Fund to which
asset belongs
Cost (optional)
-
-
-
-
-
Fund to which
asset belongs
Cost (optional)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Fund to which
liability relates
Amount due
(optional)
-
-
-
-
-
Print Name		 Endowment
funds
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
OK
Endowment
funds
to nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
Current value
(optional)
-
-
-
-
-
Current value
(optional)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
When due
(optional)
Date of
approval

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)

19/12/2022

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