People experiencing homelessness face huge challenges accessing health, care and other support, with a significant number also facing complex issues around immigration. Hospital admissions present a unique opportunity to link these individuals up to legal experts that they would normally struggle to access.

Since 2015 Pathway has been working alongside partners from legal advice organisations to provide vital housing and immigration advice to homeless patients. This support is particularly vital for people with no recourse to public funds (NRPF).

Initially aimed at patients being supported by Pathway Teams in London hospitals, this work has been expanded to make support available to a wider group of individuals experiencing homelessness, including in mental health and specialist outreach settings. We also opened up the service to our teams outside of London in 2022. 

So many of our homeless patients are socially excluded most of the time. They are living in the shadows, in the dark. Helping them in this way gives them hope and brings them out of the shadows into the light.

Member of the Pathway Royal London Team

The project is funded by St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity. Through it, each participating Pathway Team has access to specialist legal advice on housing, immigration and/or welfare via telephone or email. Some of our providers can also take on cases, providing full legal casework to support vulnerable patients with the more complex or time-consuming issues. These specialist legal advice providers have dealt with over 250 enquiries or cases to date.

Our legal partners are:

There is moral integrity in [continuing with] this project. Patients received help which would not have happened otherwise. We are able to reach the most vulnerable groups, help them and make them feel valued. Many have never felt this before. This project has the power to make real and positive change for patients.

For more information about our legal advice work, feel free to reach out to us at info@pathway.org.uk. You can also

Pathway and Praxis have worked together to develop specialist immigration advice services to help Pathway team patients in hospital.