Matt Downie

Matt is a passionate and highly effective advocate for the homeless. He was appointed as Chief Executive of the homelessness charity Crisis in January 2022, after seven years of outstanding success in his role there as Director of Policy and External Affairs. During that time he oversaw several landmark policy successes, including the Homelessness Reduction Act (2017). He also championed the development and sharing of best practice and the use of evidence in services delivery, both inside Crisis and across the sector. He headed Crisis’s detailed analysis of what it would take to end homelessness, the piece of work that he is most proud of. He has exciting plans to tackle homelessness including involving some of the major players in the housing market and he hopes Crisis can become more directly involved in this. In 2019, Matt was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list for services to tackling homelessness. Matt has also worked for Action for Children, The National Autistic Society, and Shelter, having joined the organisations while he himself did not have anywhere permanent to live. At Shelter he developed a passion for campaigning and lead on the campaign for The Autism Act, the first ever disability-specific law in the UK.