This seminar will look at recent research from King’s College London Legal Clinic and the King’s Policy Institute, investigating local authority refusals to see homeless applicants face to face, and insisting on online applications. The research investigates the impact these practices have on people experiencing homelessness, who turn to the healthcare sector for support. Jo Underwood and Hannah Piggott will present the findings of this research.

Jo Underwood is a housing solicitor and lecturer in the King’s Legal Clinic in the Dickson Poon School of Law at King's College London. She has previously carried out training, policy, campaigning and research activities centred around improving policy and practice regarding homelessness.

Hannah Piggott is a Research Fellow in the Policy Institute at King’s. Her research focuses on homelessness, social justice and ethical research with vulnerable participants.​ She leads several projects focused on homelessness including two projects for the Centre for Homelessness Impact.

Read the report

Underwood, J., Wright, J. & Piggott, H. (2025) Closed doors: The challenges of finding face-to-face help with homelessness applications, and the impact on hospitals in London, London: King’s Legal Clinic, The Dickson Poon School of Law and The Policy Institute, King’s College London. (Associated King's news item at time of publication: 10 October 2025.)

Booking

Please book on Eventbrite.

Homelessness series at King's

This webinar, which takes place on MS Teams only, is part of the Homelessness series, organised out of the NIHR Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit, King's College London, by Research Fellow Jess Harris.

The Unit is home to the Homelessness Research Programme.

We generally send out the slides following meetings and post them here, but do not record sessions.

Please get in touch with Jess Harris if you would like to join the mailing list for the Homelessness series.