Landlords for homelessness charity to compete with Shelter and Crisis?

Reply to the comment left by Robert M at 13/12/2022 - 16:56
I wasn't saying that you shouldn't pay people to house people. I was just wondering whether there could be any benchmark that could be set up to differentiate between charities that do house people and charities that don't. If you donate to a housing charity you do genuinely want to see that your money is going to put a roof over someone's head.

A fantastic idea and one which I fully support

Reply to the comment left by Smiffy at 14/12/2022 - 08:22
Yes I think it could and if he lets us we could expand his charity Nationwide. He already has the template for it - I think he is doing a wonderful job. Helping ourselves and others while diverting funds from those who deride us sounds great to me!

Reply to the comment left by Helen at 13/12/2022 - 20:58
I believe that Crisis does provide some hostels or supported accommodation in London, and refers people in to other accommodation. They don't appear to do this in most other areas, so the support they give outside of London is somewhat different. I think they provide some funding to some housing providers, and they also run training courses for hostel residents to help them prepare for the responsibilities of having a tenancy.

Shelter run some excellent training courses on housing rights, produce some great textbooks and guides, and provide advice and assistance to tenants (not always acting against the landlord). However, they do advise bad tenants on how to delay and frustrate the eviction process, which is to the detriment of landlords (and ultimately to the tenants as well), and of course their political campaigning and lobbying is very much aimed at demonising private landlords. As far as I'm aware, they have also never housed anyone, other than by referring people to other housing providers.

Reply to the comment left by Smiffy at 14/12/2022 - 08:22
While my not for profit organisation could certainly do with some fundraising to house and support more people who find themselves experiencing homelessness, we do only operate in one city, and there are sound logistical reasons for this. I'm not saying the model of housing provision couldn't be expanded to more areas, but it would be a massive undertaking.

What I think you are suggesting though, is something much more national, that can potentially benefit tenants and landlords alike in all areas of England (or UK?). For this it would need to be something more akin to the idea I proposed to a council 18 years ago, i.e. a scheme to provide rent in advance, a cash deposit, and a rent and damage guarantor. Something like this could be set up on a national basis, if the funding was in place and there were suitably qualified staff to run it.

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 14/12/2022 - 09:30
Yes I understand the idea of benchmarking, but comparison of overheads is perhaps not the most appropriate way of doing this.

Benchmark on results instead, e.g. every £1000 raised enables "x" number of people to be housed and supported for "y" number of days.

Reply to the comment left by Robert M at 14/12/2022 - 11:24Does this have to be aimed at individual tenancies? Is it feasible to have shared/communal facilities a bit like a Students Hall of Residence? They get a bed room even en suite if they pay more but communal cooking and lounge areas? I was just thinking that homeless servicemen are unlikely to ever be able to afford an individual tenancy. I think The Queen Victoria Seamen's Mission is a good example. If it was families then children would have communal areas to play in. Another example would be a kibbutz without the farming!

Reply to the comment left by Susan Bradley at 14/12/2022 - 11:45
Susan, I'm not sure what the "this" is that you are referring to, but if you are referring to the housing model that I use for housing people who are homeless, then the supported housing provision is based on it being dispersed, small scale, shared accommodation, (mini HMO's of 2 - 4 residents), so it utilises "normal" housing stock that is readily available in any town or city anywhere.

If it is the rent in advance, cash deposit, and damage guarantor scheme that you were referring to, then this could be utilised for any type of accommodation for any size household. However, if it is for tenants of HMOs, then there would be limitations as to what could be claimed against the deposit and guarantee as it would be virtually impossible to establish individual culpability for damage in communal areas.

Reply to the comment left by Robert M at 14/12/2022 - 12:06
Thank you Robert, I should have known that you would have considered all possibilities. I think we should adopt your model Nationwide since you have already done the donkey work and have a reliable, workable "oven ready" project.

Great idea.
Not sure we want to work with Govt. In the beginning. I think gathering info from specific charities is a positive starting place. I have a tenant who is the CEO of a charity
where the vision is ‘ A safer world where levels of violence are reduced and children’s physical health, mental health and life chances are maximise as they are not adversely impacted by early life trauma.“

I am due to meet this tenant on Monday evening and I think I will ask him if he could Explain to me a little bit more about this charity.