Homelessness in London
170,068
According to Shelter, 1 in 52 people are affected by homelessness in London (that’s approx 170,068 people)
11,081
In 2020-2021 there were 11,081 people rough sleeping on the streets of London, as estimated by CHAIN.
£26,000
It costs the public purse £26,000+ each year to support ONE person affected by homelessness (Greater Change Impact Report 2021)
This means that homelessness in London costs the taxpayer at least £288,106,000 each year (and that’s not even including hidden homelessness).
At Unseen Tours we want to do something about this:
- We provide training and meaningful work opportunities for people affected by homelessness, so that they can do a job they love and chart a path out of vulnerability.
- We raise awareness about homelessness issues by encouraging conversations across social divides.
Help us address homelessness in London
Come on a tour!
Support our guides to earn income (while having a wonderful walk and learning fascinating new things about London).
Donate
Help us extend the positive social impact we’re able to create. This will particularly help us keep our core team on staff.
Partner with us
Find out how your organisations could support Unseen Tours to increase the impact they’re able to make through corporate partnerships.
Become our new tour guide
Do you…
- Have experience of homelessness?
- Love London?
- Enjoy speaking with people?
- Want a new job that requires you to share your story?
Then you could be our new tour guide!
We’re currently looking for new tour guides who would be interested in creating new walking tours in the London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets or Hackney. If you think this could be you, or know anyone that would be interested, please email us at enquiries@unseentours.org.uk by 30th April 2023 with the following:
- Name
- Why you would like to be our new walking tour guide
- Five interesting facts that you’d like people to know about London
- Your phone number
What makes our tours special is that they are all created by the people that run them – meaning that you will have the opportunity to guide people around YOUR London.
Training will be provided, and no prior experience of tour guiding is required. All we need is your passion for London, and enthusiasm for helping us change the stigma around homelessness through walking tours.
Download the flyer to pass onto any who might be interested.
Free tours for like-hearted organisations
We’re now able to offer our tours for free to London-based organisations supporting:
- refugees
- people affected by homelessness
- people affected by human trafficking and modern slavery
As part of our commitment to help refugees, people affected by homelessness and people affected by human trafficking and modern slavery, we really want our tours to be aspirational for people with lived experience of it. The project for which we received funding will therefore be used to deliver walks for London-based organisations working with these groups, who no longer have funding to pay for walks, but whose beneficiaries could really benefit from walks around their own neighbourhoods for a number of reasons:
- To help their health and fitness
- Mental health benefits of walking
- To meet other people who have been in similar situations to them previously (peer support through difficult circumstances)
- Aspirational walks – to see someone who has experienced homelessness (like them) lead a walking tour and give them the encouragement that they may be able to do something similar
- Get a new appreciation for London and the outdoors
We’re grateful to have received the Community Ideas Grant, funded by Transport for London in partnership with The London Marathon Charitable Trust and managed by the environmental regeneration charity Groundwork London under the Walking and Cycling Grants London grant programme, to enable us to reach these audiences and increase the positive social impact we’re able to make in London.
To nominate your organisation for these free walking tours, please complete the form below: