A pioneering project has rescued more than 3,000 people – including almost 2,000 children – from the streets in just a decade.
Homelessness property funds attract cash from institutional investors, including pension funds, to buy and refurbish properties, leasing them to homelessness charities and housing associations.
Tenants are given stable, affordable accommodation in safe areas, enabling them to receive support and help finding work.
At a time dozens of cash-strapped councils are going bust a report shows the innovative approach has saved taxpayers £140 million on temporary accommodation and associated healthcare, mental health and criminal justice costs.
A probe by Big Society Capital, the UK’s leading social impact investor, shows homelessness properties have housed 3,300 people, including 1,607 at-risk children, over the past 10 years.
The findings are based on analysis of five funds managed by social property fund manager Resonance Ltd, which has acquired more than 1,000 properties since 2013.
Research – carried out by Alma Economics and published today – highlights the role these funds play in helping local authorities tackle a growing but hidden crisis.
Gemma Bourne, managing director at Big Society Capital, said: “The alarming reality is vulnerable individuals and families are enduring substandard living conditions in temporary accommodation.
“This is not good for them and it puts a heavy financial toll on local authorities, pushing them dangerously towards bankruptcy. It also underscores a glaring shortage in social and affordable housing – with research showing £16.9 billion will be needed every year to address undersupply.
“Our report demonstrates a solution which has now existed for over a decade – but for it to adequately address the challenge at hand, we need the Government to act now to actively crowd in further investment.”
Big Society Capital is now calling on the Government to reallocate a larger proportion of its existing spend to boost initiatives like this to help enable taxpayer cash to go further. It estimates a £100 million grant from the Government could quadruple the impact of schemes over the next ten years and harness an additional £650 million from investors.
It means some 23,750 people could be safely housed creating £1.1 billion in public savings on homelessness.
Chris Cullen, head of Resonance Homelessness Property Funds, said: “Shockingly there are over 104,000 households living in temporary accommodation across England, including over 130,000 dependent children. This report highlights how social impact property funds can have an important role to play in not only successfully helping people in a housing crisis move on with their lives in safe affordable homes, but also the savings that can be achieved at both a local and central government level.”
Lee became a chef at 19 and for the next 20 years travelled the world but he saw his world collapse through alcohol abuse.
He is now a Resonance tenant and is supported alongside access to other support services by one of the fund’s 10 expert housing partners, Developing Health and Independence in Bristol.
The fund purchases properties and refurbishes them to a high standard before handing them over to housing partners.
Stable homes allow tenants to transition from the horror of homelessness to becoming an active part of their communities.
Lee said: “I woke up about a year and a few months ago and I’d been on a two-week relapse with really strong alcohol. I was walking to the shop and the next thing I know I was in intensive care. It was a horrible experience. But if I hadn’t been in intensive care, I don’t think I’d be here today.
“I’ve never really had my own home before. It’s always been live-in jobs, restaurants, hotels or on the road travelling with work. I was 48 when I got this place.
“This home has helped me relax, calm down a lot. It’s helped me manage my abstinence a lot better.”
