This September, Zoopla and Crisis are celebrating a year of working together to make homelessness in Great Britain a thing of the past.
In 2022, Zoopla staff selected Crisis as their multi-year charity partner, in accordance with Zoopla’s commitment to ensuring everyone has a safe and stable place to call home. Over the past year, Zoopla staff have worked tirelessly to raise vital funds and awareness in support of Crisis and we are so grateful to each and every member of staff who has chosen to stand side by side with people experiencing homelessness.
Research
For the partnership launch in August 2022, Zoopla leveraged their data to help us better understand the current housing crisis, and to identify where shortages of affordable housing is putting pressure on local communities and leading to increased levels of homelessness.
Through joint market analysis in our ‘Falling Short’ report, we shone a light on the availability of low-cost rented accommodation for people claiming housing benefit in England, using this information in conversations with policy makers in Westminster and beyond to make the case for urgent investment in local housing allowance.
In June 2023, further analysis by Zoopla has found that just 4% of 1–3-bedroom properties listed in the last year were affordable to people who need housing benefit to help pay their rent. These findings supported the launch of our ‘Make History: A Future free from Homelessness’ campaign, which urges the Westminster Government and all major political parties to make tackling all forms of homelessness a priority.
Awareness
Zoopla supported the 2022 Crisis at Christmas campaign across their website and marketing channels, delivering 24 million impressions. We are excited to be working again with Zoopla this festive season to promote our Christmas fundraising appeal through display advertising and social media, in order to drive additional cash donations in support of people experiencing homelessness.
Volunteering and fundraising
To date, Zoopla staff have raised over £65,900 for Crisis through payroll and matched giving. Staff have taken part in challenge events like the London Landmarks Half Marathon in April this year to raise additional funds, in addition to giving monthly directly from their payslips. Zoopla have matched these payroll donations pound for pound.
Through their support for Crisis at Christmas, Zoopla customers collectively donated over £3,600 to the appeal, providing food, companionship and care for people experiencing homelessness over the festive period.
Zoopla staff have also given over 200 hours of their time to support the Crisis retail warehouse to coordinate, prepare and price up donated stock for our network of Shops from Crisis, in addition to volunteering at one of our Crisis at Christmas centres in December 2022.
Looking ahead
Crisis are excited to stand side by side with Zoopla in 2023 and beyond, working together wherever possible to influence key stakeholders to help make homelessness history.
Charlie Bryant, CEO of Zoopla, said of the partnership:
“It’s been a hugely successful year working with Crisis, one which our staff have embraced and enjoyed through fundraising and promoting the need to better understand the causes of homelessness. We haven't seen the increased investment in local housing allowance that we’d hoped for after the publication of our ‘Falling Short’ report, so we must continue to work together to highlight how chronic underinvestment in housing benefit prevents the people from accessing affordable homes in the private-rented market. We are looking forward to making progress with Crisis and people experiencing homelessness into 2024.”
A huge thank you to all at Zoopla who have worked so hard to make this partnership a success. We look forward to working together with you into 2024 and beyond.
If you’d like more information on Zoopla’s work with Crisis, or how your business could get involved in supporting people experiencing homelessness, please email ella.dinsdale@crisis.org.uk.