In collaboration with Jimmy’s we organised co-production activities at the beginning of the project to define the research questions and align our focus points and to discuss how to approach data collection. We continued the co-production process through regular check-ins with Jimmy’s throughout the research, discussing progress with them at various points, including a discussion of our research findings with Jimmy’s staff after the data collection phase. All the data collection activities were carried out by consulting Jimmy’s on the methods and approach.

As agreed with our research partner, capturing the views and experiences of the modular home residents as one of the main stakeholders of the project was considered as crucial. The interviewed residents provided us with first-hand information about the modular homes and to what extent living in a modular home has affected their lives. The co-designed and co-produced approach and close involvement of Jimmy’s facilitated data collection from residents which would have been challenging otherwise. Collaboration with Jimmy’s enabled us to have long-term access to four modular home sites that Jimmy’s manage. Due to the nature of this type of accommodation, interviewing the residents needed to be carefully managed. We prepared information sheets, consent forms, and interview questions in consultation with Jimmy’s before data collection. We asked the residents’ support workers to ask the residents whether they were happy to participate in the research before organising the interviews. Being able to spend time at the modular homes sites with the support workers allowed us to meet the residents and create a feeling of trust. The interviews with residents were very successful and created a rich empirical data set about the very personal causes of homelessness, the lived experiences of homelessness, and the ways in which residents felt that their lives had changed now that they were housed in a modular home.

In addition, Jimmy’s provided us with an anonymised analysis of quantitative data that they collect about their residents on their information and reporting system, Charity-Log, which we could not otherwise have accessed. This helped us to understand the residents’ backgrounds (e.g., their level of need, age, gender) and the changes to their circumstances when living in a modular home.

The commitment of Jimmy’s to this research enabled us to interview the staff members who work with modular home residents, including the management team, housing support workers, maintenance team and data monitoring and research team. We interviewed some members of staff more than once and held conversations frequently with them to address research gaps.

The final research output in the form of a report, coproduced with the residents and Jimmy’s staff, will consequently feature many of their voices and rich qualitative insights.