Painting by Tony O'Brien
By Tony O'Brien
Find out about the images used on this website at the London Housing Foundation Gallery. go
Find out about the images used on this website at the London Housing Foundation Gallery. go
The London Housing Foundation is developing a website bringing together research, case studies and discussion on utilising the private rented sector as a resource for homeless and vulnerable people.
We are developing this website now, beginning with a few pages on our own work in this area. It will take a few months to get it up to full speed.
In the meantime, we would like to hear from you if you have any suggestions regarding content. Please contact Harmit Kambo.
www.privaterentedsector.org.uk
The London Housing Foundation has only a very limited supply of funds to disburse. During 2005/06, the Directors considered very carefully how best to ensure that these funds have a genuine impact on tackling homelessness in London. We concluded that the best way would be to focus project related grants very tightly, with clear objectives and the potential to have a wider impact through dissemination and influence. A number of possible areas of support were investigated before the unanimous selection of a special topic. Thus, for the foreseeable future our project related funding will be directed at finding innovative and productive ways of utilising the private rented sector (PRS) in providing an effective resource for single homeless people and to prevent homelessness.
Funding in this area seeks to address the problem that the private rented sector has in recent years provided only a very limited resource for those tackling single homelessness. However, in the light of restricted access to social housing we feel it is imperative to find more productive ways of utilising the potential of the private rented sector (PRS). The overall objective of this three-year demonstration programme is therefore:
The grant programme is supplemented by a range of other activities that seek to build and disseminate knowledge of how the PRS can be used productively for the benefit of single homeless people. We are developing a special website that will provide a single source of information for anyone wishing to explore what is happening in this field and to be guided to examples of good practice - whether connected with the London Housing Foundation's support or enitrely independent. This site will be launched in Spring 2007.
In the summer of 2005 we established a two-stage process for applications. The first stage involved submitting an outline proposal, to be considered by a Panel selected from the Board of the Foundation and including the Chief Policy Officer of the National Landlords Association. Favoured outline applications were then to be invited to prepare a detailed business plan and, in recognition of the inevitable need to break new ground, up to £10,000 development funding would be made available for this purpose. Final decisions on which schemes to support would be taken by the full Board of the Foundation.
Eight outline applications were received in Round 1: September 2005. The panel decided that none of these achieved what was being sought and therefore did not offer development funding or invite detailed business plans from any. A further nine applications were considered by the Panel in the second round and four of these were invited to prepare detailed business plans, each receiving an allocation of £10,000 for development funding.
In May 2006 the Board of the Foundation considered the business plans received, inviting those involved in preparing them to answer questions about the proposals. As a result, two initiatives were approved for funding and these are outlined below:
This is a very broad-based partnership and part of a Treasury funded Invest to Save Bid (ISB). The Government sponsoring department is the CLG and the DWP is deeply involved, offering to house the project team within the Job Centre Plus homelessness unit (providing the office space, not the staff). Other partners include:
- Broadway and Threshold Housing Advice, each of which will be involved in accessing PRS accommodation for those moving on from hostels;
- the Pan-London Providers Group (PLPG), a consortium of seven of the largest hostel providers in London;
- Business Action on Homelessness; and
- SAFE at Toynbee Hall.
The proposal seeks to change policy and practice at the national level, providing an alternative route away from the extremely strong connection between hostels, unemployment and continuing dependency.
There are three interlocking objectives. The outline proposes that ISB funding will focus on meeting objectives 1 & 2, while the Foundation's funding will focus on objective 3.
- Tackling endemic worklessness and inactivity in hostels by creating more effective pathways into employment, turning hostels into transitional spaces;
- Reducing the costs to the Treasury of providing benefits to people who have the potential to work, but who may need a way around the benefits trap caused by high hostel rents;
- Reducing the silt-up crisis in homelessness hostels by increasing the effective use of the PRS as move-on accommodation.
The methodology will involve identifying and assisting hostel residents with very low on no support needs, who are highly motivated, to gain employment and to find independent accommodation. They will be provided with a series of incentives that will mean that they will not lose all of the financial advantage of working to benefits. With these incentives they will be able to build up savings for a rent deposit and other moving/set-up costs whilst in the hostel, as well as having additional spending money.
Broadway and Threshold Housing Advice will both be involved in sourcing PRS accommodation, preparing the tenants, providing property management for the landlords (where required) and identifying and securing/providing continuing support under Supporting People, if required. There will be a range of other support, including financial literacy and training from SAFE at Toynbee Hall. Elements of support and guarantees to landlords are included, as well as safety net provision for tenants. The PLPG will act to tackle the culture in their hostels that often militates against using the PRS.
The Foundation has approved a total of £460,000 over four years, out of a total project cost of £2.5 million. Outcome targets are for 225 people rehoused from hostels into the PRS (and employed) during the three years, but the most significant target is to change in policy so that benefits are no longer a major barrier for homeless people.
Broadway Homelessness and Support is firmly rooted in the homelessness sector. They operate the Clearing House, a pan-London lettings agency for social housing created under the Rough Sleepers Initiative and work directly with nearly 3,000 homeless and vulnerable people each year in a range of services.
The aim of the PRSS, which will be delivered by Broadwayís trading company, Broadway Futures Limited, is to develop a sustainable social enterprise that will act as a lettings agency: sourcing and managing PRS accommodation on the one hand and sourcing and supporting formerly homeless tenants on the other. They plan to have in their portfolio over 500 properties by the end of three year funding from the Foundation and to be largely self-sufficient at that time, by virtue of management fee income. In order to make the scheme work they aim to provide a range of support and services to both landlords and tenants.
Under their business plan, a major source of PRS properties will be from empty homes identified with the support of the Empty Homes Agency. The EHA currently receives over 100 offers of empty homes per month and this has the potential to increase with Empty Homes Management Orders. Formerly the EHA referred these properties to local authorities for homeless families, but the demand for this has declined, meaning they are unable to use most of them. It is anticipated that many of these are suitable for use by for single homeless people, either individually or on a sharing basis. Landlords will be charged a management fee and this is anticipated to make the scheme largely self-funding over the medium term.
The Foundation has approved funding of £168,000 over three years and the initiative is expected to be self-financing by the end of year three.
In July 2006 the Board of the Foundation also approved a proposal from Threshold Housing and Advice, to aid the consolidation of part of their activity in relation to the management of PRS accommodation on behalf of landlords. Since 2002 their 'Managed Accommodation Project' (MAP) has housed over 400 homeless people in PRS accommodation, but its growth has been piecemeal. Threshold identified the need to consolidate the systems and procedures, in order to provide a strong basis for future operation and growth of this scheme and the Foundation has provided a grant of £45,300 to facilitate this.
For further information, contact Threshold Housing Advice.
The Foundation will remain closely involved with the above organisations in the development and implementation of their proposals. A new position of Programme Manager has been created especially to lead our work in this area and Harmit Kambo joined us in September 2006 for this purpose. Harmit's role includes collection and dissemination of knowledge from other initiatives in this country and abroad that may help stimulate innovation and improve effectiveness. Similarly, he will set up and oversee the contemporaneous evaluation of the approved projects, to ensure that we learn all possible lessons and disseminate these effectively. Harmit will also be seeking to identify other potential initiatives for the Foundation to support. If you would like to contact Harmit you can do so by email to Harmit Kambo.
At this stage we will not be inviting any further applications, although we would like to hear from any agency involved or interested in working in this area. It is possible that the Board may consider funding further initiatives later, but this is likely to arise from our identification of opportunities, rather than from an open invitation to submit applications. However, if you have a proposal or existing work that you would like to bring to our attention, please contact Harmit Kambo.
