What happens when you design housing systems around trust instead of throughput? Housing services are often built around urgency, not dignity. In Hackney, fragmented housing and homelessness pathways created duplication, exclusion, and burnout — for staff and residents alike. This project sought to rebuild the system from the inside out, starting with the question: what if we designed housing support like we design care? Approach • Co-led a multi-month service redesign with frontline teams and residents, focused on trauma-informed practice • Created a unified intake, triage and support system that cut across homelessness, housing register and support pathways • Introduced new digital tooling, training and cultural touchpoints to support systemic change • Facilitated resident-led insight groups to test, refine and critique the proposed model Impact • Eliminated over 5,700 hours of duplicate effort by council staff • Increased case clarity and emotional safety for residents navigating housing crisis • Shifted team culture toward collective accountability, empathy and upstream prevention • Set precedent for collaborative service redesign across the council
2021