Landlords fund-raising for the homeless

Reply to the comment left by Richard U at 01/12/2017 - 10:21
Hi Richard

I am too busy housing the homeless to set up a charity as well, and I think it would not be ethically right for me to do so if it were a service that I may wish to utilise for my residents. However, I am happy to contribute my knowledge and experience, and thus some of my time, to such a venture, if someone else decided to set up such a charity.

Reply to the comment left by Mandy Thomson at 01/12/2017 - 13:41
Hi Mandy

This would certainly be the easiest way that landlords could contribute to helping the homeless, it would not require much organising or time commitment, but as Richard U says, why would this be any better than him contributing to a charity of his choice individually.

However, if Property118 is wanting to gain good publicity for private landlords, then I think it needs to set up something that is bespoke and has a clearly defined (and achievable) objective. This could be "we want to provide funding for x number of support workers, so as to enable the creation of x number of additional bed spaces, and thus take x number of rough sleepers off the street and provide them with housing and support", or it could be "we aim to raise x amount of money to donate to the Salvation Army to help towards the cost of xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (whatever project Property118 wish to fund)", or it could simply be "we are raising funds to donate to Crisis for the valuable work they do".

Whatever it is the Property118 landlords want their money to go towards, it needs to be clearly defined so that landlords know what they are contributing towards, and what the outcomes are (what have been achieved) from their collective contribution. It also needs to aim to promote the generosity of landlords, and help to counteract the false media portrayal of landlords as nasty money grabbing parasites.

The problem with collecting money without being a charity is that gift aid wouldn't apply and there would always be trust issues, e.g. how would people know the money actually went to the Charity?

Reply to the comment left by Mark Alexander at 01/12/2017 - 15:04
Very true. Yes, getting the gift aid is a big deal as it increases the donation's value, so setting up a Property118 charity does seem to be the best way forward. However, it could then be a simple "grant making trust" type arrangement, if it wanted to keep things really simple (as opposed to setting up it's own homelessness project). Either way, I think it would still need to define it's objectives (i.e. what type of thing is going to fund).

Reply to the comment left by Robert Mellors at 01/12/2017 - 15:35
Hi Robert

Ros is looking into setting up a charity for landlords to support, but it will not be Property118 branded and I totally support that because it is important that landlords generally are given credit rather than Property118. Also, other landlord groups are more likely to support a Charity which isn't closely linked with another landlord organisation.

Reply to the comment left by Robert Mellors at 29/11/2017 - 11:22
Seems like your project in one that could be expanded by this initiative.

I think it’s great that Landlords want to contribute. Street homelessness has increased exponentially over the last few years and is likely to continue to get worse with the introduction of Universal Credit and no housing benefit eligibility for young people.
There are a lot of Housing Associations that offer ‘Supported Housing’ as well as ‘General Needs’ Housing and also Homeless Charities that offer accommodation to limited numbers of people. As people have already mentioned the support is absolutely crucial. They are limited mainly by funding for support workers and having suitable properties.
Housing Benefit used to have a part that paid for some support charges in certain circumstances which is no longer paid. This causes a big problem. As an example the HA I worked for planned to cut all the Managers in Sheltered Housing schemes (Over 65’s) a few years ago when this funding was ended. Due to a massive outcry and the impossibility of running the services without support they reintroduced them on less hours.
The last I heard HB eligible support charges for all other services were going to be ended too. If this happens brace yourselves as the homeless crisis will be so much worse.
As landlords there are many things you can do. Firstly you may have a house that is suitable for occupation, either as a hostel or move-on accommodation. The rent would need to be covered by HB LHA rates which is often lower than private rent charges. If so then partner with a homeless charity or council with the specification of who it can be used for.
For giving money or sponsorship. Again the frontline homeless charities are a great resource for information.
I think a landlords grant giving charity (with gift aid) would work really well.
People could sponsor a rehab placement, a night shelter, some nights at a backpackers when the shelters are full (as the ones in my city often are), a support workers wages, a homeless persons transition to accomodation or support for the first 6 months etc.
Another scheme that works really well is Emmaus based on a French model where people live and work communally. You need a large property and additional premises for this though.
Great to see this thread. Homelessness is just horrible and a terrible indictment on our society.

This is a really exciting thread and ideas are coming thick and fast. There are, as many people have said, numerous hurdles to overcome, financially, legally and practically. Clearly the major problem we all see is the lack of support to enable a homeless person to maintain a tenancy when they do receive accommodation. What about utilising the resources we already have? i.e. the properties we already own. I haven't thought this through yet and the idea is probably full of holes, but what if a landlord, when a property became vacant, agreed to rent to a person on the council's homeless list, at LHA rates and then the landlords charity funded a support worker from existing support services, eg. council, Salvation Army or another charity? Maybe the landlords charity could provide a small top up to any landlord who wanted to be involved but couldn't quite manage to accept the basic LHA rate. This would mean we could have examples all over the country, rather than targetting just one town or area.

There are several issues with letting to people referred by local authority homeless units. The first is insurance; while many policies allow for tenants on housing benefit, you may need specialist insurance if you take LA referred tenants as they are more likely to lead chaotic lifestyles and pose a bigger risk.
Secondly, I have come across many landlords who have taken such tenants, only to find they need to evict and the LA or other social provider who referred the tenant will help neither landlord nor tenant.
Thirdly, unlike a social landlord, a private landlord does not have the legal right to grant a "challenging" renter a licence instead of a tenancy, and that tenancy will be a full AST, meaning the arrangement can't be easily terminated if it goes wrong.
This is why I believe that private landlords should not take tenants with issues unless they are a large landlord with the resource to cope with the additional challenges, and they know exactly what they are doing.

Really good idea