Data Protection

StreetLink is a project jointly managed by Homeless Link and St Mungo's. Homeless Link and St Mungo’s (“we” or “us”) are registered charities are both registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as controllers of personal data. We run StreetLink as joint controllers.

How StreetLink uses the information you provide: -

We use personal data in line with the principles set out in the data protection legislation, including the requirement to only use your personal information for the purposes it was collected and to use appropriate technical and organisational measures to keep your information secure.

StreetLink is funded by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), the Greater London Authority (GLA) and the Welsh Government. We use some of the personal data that we collect to provide reports to these funders and you can find more information about this in the sections below. 

We rely on our legitimate interests to use the personal data that we collect for our internal monitoring and evaluation purposes. This includes preparing reports about the number of alerts we receive, the location of those alerts, and the action taken as a result. These reports are statistical and do not include any personal data from which individuals can be identified. 

StreetLink operates in England and Wales. If we receive a report about a rough sleeper outside England or Wales but within the UK, we will try to pass the information on to the relevant local services. We will only share personal data in this way when we believe we have a legitimate interest to do so. Personal information will not be sent outside the UK. 

When you send an alert to StreetLink via our website or mobile phone app, we will ask you to give us information that may help to find the person sleeping rough (for example, their gender, approximate age, what the person looks like, what they are wearing). If you include the name and/or phone number of the person sleeping rough in the alert, StreetLink may attempt to contact that person directly by phone before sending the alert on to the relevant local authority and/or their contracted provider but if contact cannot be made, StreetLink will not remove such information from the alert.

We store this information on our secure central database and we share it with the relevant local authority and/or their contracted provider (e.g. a local outreach team) in order to help them to locate the rough sleeper. 

We rely on our legitimate interests to collect and process personal data about rough sleepers in this way.

In order to send an alert to StreetLink via our website or mobile phone app, we will ask you to give us the following personal information in order to register with us: [e.g. name, address, telephone number, email address]. We will also ask you if you consent to receive our newsletters and fundraising appeals. We will store your information on our secure central database. 
Each time you send an alert about a rough sleeper, we will ask you if you consent to:
• Streetlink sharing your personal information with the relevant local authority and/or their contracted provider (e.g. a local outreach team) in case they need to contact you to ask for more information about the alert (in cases where there is not enough information to locate the rough sleeper); and 
• receive feedback on your alert by email (e.g. an update on what has happened).

If you are a rough sleeper and you refer yourself to StreetLink using our website or mobile phone app, we will ask you to give us the following personal information in order to register - name, and email address. We will also ask you to tell us if you would like to receive our newsletters, fundraising appeals. We will store your information on our secure central database.

We will ask you to consent to allow us to share your personal information with the relevant local authority and/or their contracted provider (e.g. a local outreach team) in order to help them to get in touch with you. If you are rough sleeping or homeless yourself and you are in London, your information may be passed over to the StreetLink London Advice Line, which is managed by St Mungo's, who may call you following your contact with StreetLink to see if they can offer any further support.

StreetLink values the information that members of the public share with us and we understand that feedback about what has happened as a result of an alert is important. However, the feedback we provide will be of a general nature and we will not disclose specific information about individual rough sleepers. We will tell you whether or not your alert has been acted upon but we ask you to understand that we cannot go into detail about what has happened as a result of this action. 
If you see someone is still sleeping rough after you have sent an alert to StreetLink, do not feel that your alert was a waste of time; there may be action going on ‘behind the scenes’ that has been initiated by your alert.

 

If you wish to see the information held by StreetLink about you, please make your application in writing to  streetlink@homelesslink.org.uk

We will never sell or rent your personal data. We may share your personal information with third parties:
• if you give us consent to share your personal information with a third party;
• if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation (for example, if required to do so by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime);
• where we need to share your personal information with a regulator, for example, the Charity Commission;
• as part of a transfer of some or all of our organisation and assets to any third party or as part of any restructuring or reorganisation (we will take steps with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected);
• to protect the rights, property, or safety of Homeless Link, our users and contributors or any other third parties. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
• with our trusted service providers who are authorised to act on our behalf.
Whenever we share your personal information with a third party, we will take steps to ensure that your privacy rights are protected.

The data protection legislation gives you the right to:

• Request access to your personal information. This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

• Ask us to correct personal information that we hold about you which is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate.

• Ask us to erase your personal information from our files and systems where there is no good reason for us continuing to hold it (there are some circumstances in which this right does not apply – we will inform you if this is the case when you make a request).

• Object to us using your personal information for a task carried out in the public interest or to further our legitimate interests or those of a third party (there are some circumstances in which this right does not apply – we will inform you if this is the case when you make a request).

• Ask us to restrict or suspend the use of your personal information, for example, if you want us to establish its accuracy or our reasons for using it.

• Ask us to transfer your personal information to another person or organisation.

If you want to make a request, please contact Gareth Thomas, Senior Information Manager, Homeless Link - streetlink@homelesslink.org.uk 

We will endeavour to comply with requests as soon as possible and within one month of receipt. We will let you know if we think we will need longer than one month to comply with your request.



 

If you have given your consent to us processing your personal information, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact Gareth Thomas, Senior Information Manager, Homeless Link - streetlink@homelesslink.org.uk 

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

All inbound and outbound phone calls to StreetLink are recorded, with calls recordings kept for no longer than six months.

If you would like to contact us with your views about our privacy practices, or with an enquiry or complaint relating to the way StreetLink uses your personal information, please contact Gareth Thomas, Senior Information Manager, Homeless Link - streetlink@homelesslink.org.uk

You have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office by visiting https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/