Written by Allan Macleod, Head of Civic and Inclusivity
Ask anyone in Bristol what the biggest challenges the city faces are, and you will find three main responses, inequality, transport and housing. In many ways the three are interlinked but the rise of homelessness is becoming ever more evident and the cost of housing and inequality in access is something that many of us feel whether we own or rent property. Bristol has the highest rents outside of London and the amount of people living in temporary accommodation has more than doubled since the pandemic.
But, Bristol has become known for its creative attempts to address the housing crisis. The work of the Housing Festival has championed innovative approaches to housing delivery with the Hope Rise houses raised above a car park or the Gap House concept to grow the portfolio of deliverable housing sites. Alongside housing delivery the city has a longstanding and collaborative housing support sector, vocal about the needs of its users and active in promoting their case.
On September 17th one of the key players in the housing support sector, Housing Matters had its 60th anniversary and colleagues from across UWE were there to join the celebrations and explore how we can further support the sector. Housing Matters has been championing working upstream to provide communities the support their need at an early stage, near where they live. Data from this has shown that 94% of their clients wouldn’t have accessed specialist advice if it wasn’t in their community centre.
This community first approach is exactly how UWE Bristol’s new Civic and Inclusivity team wants to work with our Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise partners.
As a University, we are often blamed for the growth in student numbers leading to higher rent and lower quality housing across the city. Our students may seem to be part of the problem but many of our students are also victims of it too, living in poor quality expensive housing. We have worked with Housing Matters to support these students. We recently connected our Student Union Housing officers to Housing Matters training to ensure that our students receive the best housing advice available when they seek support. UWE Bristol’s involvement goes further than just the needs of our students.
As an institution, we have a role to play in improving the local area in which we exist. UWE Bristols’s newly formed Civic and Inclusivity team is working both to provide meaningful volunteering and community engagement opportunities for our students but also to understand the needs of the region’s communities and how we can bring the full weight of the institution to tackle those needs.
We have a depth of academic expertise that is working to understand the needs of the sector and provide evidenced based research to back up the work of the housing support sector and had multiple academics from UWE Bristol at the event including Winifred Onyemaechi who, as well as being an associate lecturer in Human Resource Management within CBL; is a trustee for Housing Matters.
”Winifred joined our Board in 2025 and brings with her a wealth of skills in Human Resource (HR) management and organisational development. She has both professional and academic experience in HR strategy, people development, and data-driven decision making – with a keen interest in the third sector. Winifred is pursuing a PhD in Business and Management, focused on Community-based voluntary organisations, which puts her in a strong position to advise Housing Matters on volunteer engagement and the wider charity landscape. She is also an Associate Researcher, exploring innovative ways to strengthen charity-sector impact.”
Housing Matters
Winifred explains, ”I joined HM because its mission to address homelessness and provide supportive housing truly resonates with my values of empowerment and social impact. I am passionate about creating a kinder and more inclusive society where everyone feels safe, supported, and valued. Having witnessed firsthand the challenges faced by individuals experiencing housing insecurity, I deeply appreciate the transformative impact of the charity’s work in helping people rebuild their lives with dignity and hope In addition, I believe my experience as a HR professional, alongside my current research work, will enable me to make meaningful contributions towards expanding the charity’s reach and enhancing its processes, practices and impact.”
Beyond research, we are exploring opportunities to use student pro-bono support and further research support through Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and research bids to develop our connections with the sector further. Our professional volunteering scheme provides an opportunity to tap into the creative talent of our students and if the event hadn’t fallen in welcome week, we’d have sourced UWE students to support with photography. As it was, we were fortunate to have Ripley Williamson King and Anna Jones, colleagues from UWE Bristol’s Research and External Engagement division captured the celebrations.
Our new Civic team is here to help charities, communities and the whole West of England’s VCSE sector to better navigate all the University has to offer. We have a range of opportunities that any charity can access. If you’re interested in finding out more about the Civic and Inclusivity team, or exploring research, volunteering or other support from UWE, get in touch with the Civic and Inclusivity team! You can contact Allen by Emailing: Allan.Macleod@uwe.ac.uk