We're working with Kineara to increase their capacity to provide more families with housing advice.
Every day, families come to Kineara with housing problems that cannot wait. Whether it's an eviction notice, unsafe living conditions affecting their health, or concerns about their tenancy, getting specialist legal advice can often take weeks. During that time, rent arrears grow and housing situations can deteriorate.
For the past few months, Kineara has been piloting a new partnership with us, using specialist AI technology to identify legal housing issues more quickly and support practitioners in delivering advice more efficiently. This has been particularly valuable for Kineara's Housing Advice Line, where no formal legal advice partnership is currently in place, enabling Kineara's staff to better identify potential legal issues and signpost clients to appropriate support.
The partnership builds on Kineara's long-standing commitment to finding innovative ways to improve support for people facing housing insecurity. It complements Kineara's existing partnerships, including its valued work with Southwark Law Centre, by helping identify additional legal issues and creating new routes to specialist support.
We've developed an AI platform built specifically for housing law, using trusted legal resources rather than general AI models. The system gives clear guidance on deposits, disrepair, eviction and rent repayment claims while a Kineara practitioner is still able to support each case. Clients can use the platform themselves or be invited by a Kineara practitioner to share information about their situation. Once a legal need has been identified, they can be connected to appropriate support.
Housing issues are often urgent, and people need clear information as quickly as possible. This partnership is helping us explore how technology can support both our clients and our practitioners, while keeping people at the centre of everything we do.
The platform is also making support more accessible for clients. It works in more than 140 languages, accepts voice notes and can be accessed through WhatsApp, helping clients explain their circumstances more comfortably in their preferred language.
Working with a team as knowledgeable and caring as Kineara has been a pleasure. It's extremely motivating to see how they're connecting the tools we're building with real outcomes for the people they support. We're looking forward to measuring this impact over the coming months.
The pilot began earlier this year, with client engagement increasing in recent weeks. As more practitioners begin using the platform, together with Kineara we'll continue evaluating how the technology can improve access to housing advice while ensuring every client continues to receive personalised, expert support.
