Foundation ends its private rented sector programme
Harmit Kambo, Private Rented Sector programme manager left the London Housing Foundation on 6th November 2008 and had this to say:
"As many of you will know, the London Housing Foundation is currently undergoing a major strategic review. As part of this review, the Foundation has decided to scale down its work in stimulating the use of the private rented sector for single homeless people. While the PRS continues to be a challenge, we feel that we have made a strong contribution to knowledge and practice in this important area, and we should now focus on new challenges.
"This means that I am leaving the Foundation and starting an exciting new role as Campaigns Manager at the Sheila McKechnie Foundation later on this month. I’ve had the pleasure of working with many of you, and I hope that the Foundation’s work in this area has been of some help to you in supporting homeless people to make a new start renting privately.
"Over the last two years, some of our activities have included:
- Developing a specialist website www.privaterentedsector.org.uk, which is the key portal of information on how the PRS can be used to tackle homelessness. We want this website to continue to be a useful resource, and Crisis have kindly offered to manage and develop it. Crisis will therefore be rebranding the website and future bulletins will be issued by Crisis.
- Part-funding the Transitional Spaces Project (which the Foundation will continue to fund until the pilot phase closes in early 2010), a service run by Off the Streets and into Work that supports hostel residents to find sustainable employment and a PRS tenancy as part of a holistic package.
- Providing start-up funding for Real Lettings, run by Broadway, a pan-London social lettings agency run as a social enterprise.
- In partnership with Crisis, creating a searchable database of PRS access schemes in London.
- Commissioning a cost-benefit analysis of PRS access schemes, again working in partnership with Crisis, and undertaken by Jane Luby. The report, ‘Private Access, Public Gain’ sets out a clear rationale for why local authority commissioners should extend their PRS access provision to non-statutory homeless people
- Producing workshop materials and a video, targeted at people who are homeless, exploring both concerns about and the potential of the PRS. We will also shortly be publishing ‘Your Passport to Renting a Private Home’, a practical guide for homeless people as they prepare to move into PRS accommodation (a future bulletin will provide further details).
- Commissioning Geoffrey Randall and Susan Brown of Research and Information Services to undertake a series of evaluation projects about how we can make better use of the PRS. These and a range of other reports and resources are also available.
"If you want or need to contact me, you can reach me at harmitkambo@hotmail.com. Otherwise, thank for your contributions, ideas and support over the last two years. And good luck!"
Harmit Kambo
former Programme Manager
London Housing Foundation
