Slurp: Students for Action on Homelessness is a society of Edinburgh-based students committed to taking action for housing justice.

At Slurp, taking action on homelessness means directly supporting individuals in difficult housing circumstances whilst seeking to challenge the institutional failures that perpetuate this housing injustice in the UK today. We therefore combine voluntary and outreach action with campaigning and education rooted in the belief that homelessness is not an inevitability and could be ended with political will.

We believe that the volunteering and outreach services we provide can, in collaboration with the professional organisations we work with, play a meaningful role in supporting individuals affected by homelessness. However, we also believe that housing justice as a whole cannot be achieved without action from powerful institutions like governments and universities. We therefore campaign for action on housing justice through both direct campaigning and by striving to better educate ourselves and the student community on the complexity of homelessness.

In late 2022 we launched our Student Housing Crisis Campaign to investigate and raise awareness of the housing challenges faced by students in Edinburgh, part of a UK-wide crisis faced by all individuals in the rental market. We are campaigning for greater recognition and support for struggling students from local government and universities. We have also hosted speaker events to raise awareness of the complexities of contemporary housing insecurity, in 2022 welcoming an expert panel to discuss LGBTQ+ homelessness.

The interests of people experiencing homelessness are at the heart of all the work Slurp does. We aim to base the growth of our project on advice from professionals who work alongside individuals affected by homelessness and the feedback we receive from those who use our services. We ensure that the language and tone we use to discuss homelessness maintains the dignity of people who are experiencing it. Our work strives to address how our privileges create inherent barriers that prevent us from fully understanding the complexity of homelessness.

All of the work we do, from cooking sessions, to events, outreach and campaign production is funded by selling our sustainably-sourced shopper bags and other fundraising events. If you’d like to support us then please check out our online shop and follow us on social media to get updates on upcoming events.

Handed out over 3,100 freshly cooked meals at Streetwork’s Edinburgh hub.

Designed and sold 232 (and counting!) Slurp shoppers to help fund our work.

Streetwork told us that their service users always request hot drinks to keep them warm, so we bought and handed out 50 flasks to rough sleepers across Edinburgh!

Used our social media to create a platform for information about homelessness.

Prevented over 40kg of food from going to landfill.