Bridge Housing Solutions: An AI prediction engine (utilising NLP and contextual scoring) to match social housing properties and reduce the need for temporary accommodation

当前的生活成本危机以及新冠肺炎疫情导致的失业加剧了英国各地的房租拖欠和无家可归现象，274,000人无家可归，其中约250,000人住在临时住所(84,740户)。然而，英国《2021年危机》的一项研究显示，目前约有4.5万处社会住房处于空置状态。目前填补这些空置住房的过程耗费了大量的时间和资源，这意味着尽管英国创下无家可归纪录，但大多数住房仍处于空置状态。目前，地方当局只能在他们被接受的无家可归者所在的行政区提供住宿--这意味着如果目前没有房产可用，那么服务用户必须在临时住房之间移动，否则将面临无家可归(等待名单通常超过10年)。例如：服务用户在布伦特的临时住所，正在B&B等待安全和负担得起的住宿。哈罗市议会(邻近的行政区)有一处空置的房产，因为没有哈罗的人想要这处房产。在委员会找到合适的人选之前，这处房产将一直处于空置状态。然而，目前有数千个家庭住在伦敦的临时住所，他们将很高兴有机会被重新安置到哈罗的一处房产中。目前还没有办法或程序让英国所有服务用户都能看到这些房产。英国议会迫切需要一种解决方案，帮助服务用户在他们所在的行政区以外(通过邻近的行政区或到另一个有密切联系的地区，如家庭)，将可用的或空置的社交住房与服务用户相匹配。为了解决这个关键问题，我的社会住房正在开发一款应用程序，帮助用户根据个人标准找到自己的房产，比如离家庭、工作地点、学校或其他因素近。该应用程序将包含一个人工智能算法，根据应用程序交互和用户偏好匹配属性，自动入围合适的属性，并在可用时通知用户。该平台还将能够存储租约等文件，以便可以完全管理这一过程。

The current 'cost-of-living crisis' along with job losses from the COVID -19 pandemic has increased rent arrears and homelessness across the UK with 274,000 people homeless and ~250,000 of these living in temporary accommodation (84,740 households). However a 2021 Crisis UK study shows that there are currently ~45,000 social housing properties that are currently vacant.The current process for filling these empty homes is vastly time and resource consuming, meaning that despite record homelessness in the UK, a majority of these home remain empty. Local authorities currently can only offer accommodation in the borough where they are an accepted homeless case and nothing else -- meaning if no properties are currently available then service users must move between temporary housing or face homelessness (waiting lists are often over 10 years).Example: A service user is in Brent in Temporary Accommodation and is waiting in a B&B for secure and affordable accommodation. There is a void property in Harrow Council (neighbouring borough) that is vacant as no one from Harrow wanted the property. That property will sit vacant until the council can find someone for it. However, there are thousands of families currently in Temporary Accommodation in London, that would welcome the opportunity to be re-housed into a property in Harrow.There is no current way or process to make these properties available and visible to all service users in the UK. UK councils are in desperate need of a solution to help match service users with available and otherwise empty social homes from outside their borough (either through a neighbouring borough or to another area with strong links such as family).In order to address this critical issue, My Social Housing are developing an app that helps users find their own properties based on their individual criteria, such as location near family, work, school or other factors. The app will contain an AI algorithm to match properties based on app interaction and user preferences, automatically shortlisting suitable properties and notifying users when available. The platform will also be able to store documentation such as tenancies so the process can be fully managed.