Beam: Crowdfunding and AI Solutions for UK Homelessness and Social Services
- yanabijoor
- Jul 31, 2025
- 2 min read
Beam, a United Kingdom tech-for-good company founded in 2017 by Alex Stephany, is combating homelessness and helping refugees using its crowdfunding platform and AI-based tools. Its platform offers employment and housing opportunities to marginalized people.
The Problem Beam Solves
Homelessness in the UK has expanded, with London's homeless population increasing by 54% from 2013 to 2023. Its government is under pressure to build temporary housing during its national housing shortage. While social workers are under pressure too, they face critical shortages for children and family services. Bureaucratic paperwork also inhibits social workers’ ability to work face-to-face with clients, adding pressure on the social service system.
Beam's Solution
Beam has built a crowdfunding platform that creates individual profiles for homeless people and asylum seekers, facilitating public donations to fund training, work clothes, or deposits for renting. It has supported over 3,000 people with employment and housing. Beam's Magic Notes AI platform, used by over 80 government councils, takes minutes off and summarizes meetings with social workers, drafting follow-up actions to reduce paperwork. This frees up time for face-to-face support, which might savethe UK £2 billion annually.
Beam's Impact
Beam has supported 6,220 people through various initiatives as of 2025. It has helped people into jobs, homes, and provided course completions, with numbers growing each year. For every £1 the government spends on Beam, £7 is returned to taxpayers, saving £35.668 million for Central Government, £47.239 million for Local Government, £12.455 million for the Ministry of Justice, and £12.636 million for the National Health Service.
Why Beam's Solution is Innovative
Beam's platform combines crowdfunding and AI to address structural issues. It allows firms and individuals to fund concrete needs, while Magic Notes uses generative AI to streamline social work, suggesting activities human laborers might overlook.
This two-pronged approach—combining community-driven funding with tech—makes Beam a scalable solution. Beam is currently being used by 70% of the UK government departments that are piloting its systems.
Areas for Improvement
Despite being successful, Beam cannot meet council contract targets, with some contracts yielding single-figure placements despite heavy investment. Conwy Council, for instance, only managed to place a single person into work, while Ashford only housed three families out of 30 referrals.
Critics say Beam is "cherry-picking" people with less complicated needs, leaving behind people who have issues like substance abuse. There are also data privacy issues since Magic Notes deals with sensitive information, making it imperative to have strong oversight. The British Association of Social Workers stresses that AI should not substitute for human judgment, citing the importance of having distinct ethical frameworks and transparency.
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