Meet the Brighton teenager on a mission to help homeless families in the city
At first glance, Scarlett Chapman seems like any other 15-year-old. She loves music, hangs out with her friends and is counting down the days until her GCSEs are finally behind her. But alongside juggling school work and a busy social life, she’s also leading Mission: HOME, a Brighton-based campaign supporting thousands of families in Brighton & Hove who are living in temporary accommodation.
Right now, there are 2,900 parents and children trapped in temporary accommodation in Brighton & Hove. Many have been stuck there for months, sometimes even years, often in the most awful conditions imaginable. Without a permanent roof over their head, these families live with the constant fear of having to move somewhere else, with very little notice and almost no say in where they end up. This is having devastating consequences on children, who have to change schools and make new friends again and again, impacting their confidence and sense of stability.
This crisis isn’t unique to Brighton & Hove. More than 130,000 households in England are currently without a permanent home. Almost two-thirds of them are families with children. When Scarlett first discovered the scale of the problem, she could hardly believe it. And when she started telling other people, they didn’t believe it either. Most assumed homelessness only meant rough sleeping, not thousands of families hidden away in temporary rooms, hotels or emergency flats.
Scarlett has been supporting homelessness charities since she was eight years old, when she first noticed people sleeping on the streets around Brighton & Hove and couldn’t understand why some people had a home and others didn’t. Determined to help, she started busking to raise money for local charities. She recalls standing on a bench in the city centre and singing Hallelujah at the top of her voice. She laughs now about how nervous she was but remembers how people smiled, listened and donated. Since then, she has raised more than £10,000 for local homeless charities.
As she got older, Scarlett realised she needed to do more. She couldn’t believe how many people, including children her own age, were trapped in temporary accommodation. She remembers meeting one mother who said her flat was so damp she had to hoover mould off her daughter’s bedroom walls.
That’s when the idea for Mission: HOME began to form. With the support of a small team, Scarlett began researching how the housing system worked and soon discovered that across the city, there are dozens of small, unused pieces of council-owned land – “microsites” – sitting empty while families remain stuck in temporary accommodation. Many of these tiny patches aren’t big enough for large developments, but they are big enough for one, two or four new homes.
That realisation became the driving force behind Mission: HOME, which wants these empty plots of land to be turned into permanent social housing. Scarlett believes the council would build these homes if they genuinely felt the public supported it – and that people would support these developments if they knew these sites existed and understood the life-changing impact even one new home could have.
That’s where Mission: HOME comes in. It is about raising awareness, explaining the problem by showing a practical solution, and helping people take action quickly and easily.
The first of these proposed microsites is in Woodingdean, where plans have been submitted to build four permanent, three-bedroom council homes for local families. Over the 21-day planning window, Scarlett wants as many people as possible to post messages of support. She believes that if enough residents say “yes”, it will show the council that Brighton & Hove is in support of the development and make them more likely to grant planning permission.
To make that happen, Scarlett has been meeting residents, speaking at community events and going door to door to explain why these homes matter. She knows that planning consultations often attract more objections than support, so her mission is to make sure the voices of compassion are heard just as loudly.
And this is only the beginning. Mission: HOME would like to identify two more sites in the city that could be turned into permanent social housing for local families. Scarlett’s goal for next year is to secure the council’s allocation of
these sites and build the local backing needed to make them a reality. Alongside this, the campaign will launch a broader city-wide effort to challenge negative perceptions of families experiencing homelessness.
Through Mission: HOME, Scarlett wants Brighton & Hove to lead by example and show cities across the UK that communities have the power to bring about real, lasting change.
Find out more about Mission: HOME
Instagram: @itsmissionhome
LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/company/mission-home
Follow Scarlett on YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC1FR6F1jJyjygYFHDuIZ1eQ
