Please note: this event has passed
At today's meeting
One hundred and fifteen people participated in today’s webinar on "Homeless applications: barriers to in-person help & impact on hospitals", part of the Homelessness series from HSCWRU at King's.
The speakers were Jo Underwood, housing solicitor and lecturer in the King’s Legal Clinic and Hannah Piggott, Research Fellow in the Policy Institute at King’s.
The webinar explored insights from their recent research investigating local authority refusals to see homeless applicants face to face, insisting on online applications. The research maps differing approaches across London and investigates the impact on people experiencing homelessness, who turn to the healthcare sector for support.
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.
Attendees joined from as far away as Arizona.
Some remarks from attendees:
- Thank you for the session - it was very informative and resonates with what I have experienced in my role.
- Thank you for allowing me to join the meeting today. It has given me a real insight.
- Thank you for the webinar, that was super informative!
The government's new strategy on homelessness was released while this meeting was taking place. The Homelessness Research Programme at King's will be publishing a blog reflecting on this plan in the coming days. See all "homelessness" posts on our blog.
Thank you
This was the last of the 11 events we have held this year in this series. Many thanks to all the speakers and those who have come along.
Coming up
The next webinar in the Homelessness series is
14.1.26 on Harm Reduction in women’s homelessness services
Please get in touch with Jess Harris to join the mailing list to hear about future events.
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.)
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.
At this event
Supervising Solicitor & Lecturer in Law
Research Fellow
Senior Research Fellow