Meet the inspirational teenager taking on homelessness and the housing crisis

Scarlett Chapman raised more than £10,000 to fight homelessness by the time she was 12. Still only 15, earlier this year she became a Big Issue Changemaker – making her the youngest of our class of 2026.

Scarlett is not alone. Scores of young people across the country raise money to support efforts to tackle homelessness. What set her apart was her work on a housing model that could be potentially replicated across the country.

Scarlett is the driving force behind Mission: HOME, a grassroots campaign looking to identify unused plots of land and work with councils to turn them into homes for homeless families. When Big Issue spoke to her back in January, she was aiming to garner support for a planning application in Brighton and Hove to build four homes in Woodingdean.

Scarlett’s Changemaker nomination has helped her shift the dial in her work with Brighton and Hove City Council, she told us. Featuring on our list sparked a connection with Ashoka, a charity supporting young entrepreneurs. Now Ashoka is helping Mission: HOME with governance and administration. “Ashoka heard of Mission: HOME through Big Issue so coming to things like this [event] and networking has been a huge help in terms of finding support and good connections,” said Scarlett.

“It’s really helped the campaign grow much further and it’s given us a clear path. We’ve a plan about where we want to go and being a Big Issue Changemaker has helped that.”

The award also helped put Mission: HOME’s cause on the map, attracting about 300 messages of support on the planning application, which will be decided later this year.

The Chapmans hope it will be the first of many sites to help homeless families and could even be a blueprint for other councils to open up housing for households in temporary accommodation. “Local councils have been happy to speak. We’re just starting to get in touch with funding organisations, but there have been some conversations in the background,” said Scarlett’s father James.

“The Big Issue Changemaker nomination has changed a lot. To start with, it’s a 15-year-old girl. When you show there’s actually some national recognition, that gets people to really go: ‘Oh, OK.’”

Read more:

• Introducing the Big Issue 100 Changemakers of 2026
• ‘This is definitely a pinch-me moment’: Big Issue’s Changemakers of 2025 react to being honoured
• The Big Issue Changemakers of 2024: Communities

Scarlett had just finished her GCSEs when she attended Big Issue’s event but now she is looking to the future.

“There’s a bit of catching up to do. I’m still trying to get my head around things again,” said Scarlett. “But I definitely want to continue doing this in the long term and watch it grow within Brighton and Hove and then, who knows, maybe outside Brighton and Hove.

“I just think [being named a Changemaker] opened up so many amazing opportunities and it’s really helped me realise that this is probably something I want to go into long term, so I can create societal change.”

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