‘Leading the fight against homelessness’

Leading the fight against homelessness

By Published On: 21st April 20231.8 min readCategories: Headlines, Social Affairs Featured

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A Scottish social enterprise has inspired a new UK initiative to provide more affordable homes

The success of a Scottish social enterprise in providing quality homes for people on low incomes has inspired a similar initiative for the rest of the UK.

Lloyds Banking Group has teamed up with Crisis, the homelessness charity, to create not-for-profit lettings agency to combat the growing shortage of affordable homes.

‘Leading the fight against homelessness’

The bedroom of a Homes for Good property. Photo Homes for Good

The two-year partnership has been influenced by the achievements of Homes for Good, a Glasgow-based Community Interest Company, which was set up in 2013 to become Scotland’s only private sector lettings agency specialising in homes for people on low incomes or benefits.

In the last 10 years Homes for Good has raised some £20 million in social investment to create its own portfolio of over 300 high-quality homes for people in need. It now works with over 130 landlords, almost 1,000 tenants and has some 220 properties under management in and around Glasgow and the West of Scotland.

Earlier this year the company was presented with a prestigious Gold World Habitat Award for its work in helping to address the housing crisis by purchasing neglected properties to renovate and then rent to people on low incomes.

Drawing on the success of Homes for Good the charity Crisis aims to develop a new not-for-profit lettings agency to support both tenants and landlords to make renting easier for more people.

‘Leading the fight against homelessness’

New agency aims to help the homeless. Photo by Dr Neil Clifton CC BY-SA 2.0

The new agency, which is scheduled to begin operating in London later this year, will not insist on prospective tenants having to cough-up huge chunks of rent in advance, fulfil strict and often unreasonable reference requirements or provide guarantors.

Once it has been started in London it is hoped the idea can be rolled out across Britain with any profits made by the the agency reinvested into helping the homeless find a permanent roof over their heads.