Robert Mellors: From being homeless to housing homeless people

In the run-up to Christmas, there was a reader’s question on Property118 about landlords setting up a charity to help house the homeless and one of those who responded was Robert Mellors.

He runs Choice Housing Trust which is a not-for-profit housing association that works with landlords to offer vulnerable people somewhere to call home.

But Robert’s story about how he ended up doing so is fascinating, as it takes in being homeless and becoming a landlord – and over the years, he has found that lots of private landlords are keen to help vulnerable tenants.

He says: “I think private landlords genuinely do want to help people.

“Unfortunately, landlords are misconstrued as evil money-grabbing so-and-so’s but they’re not.

“They genuinely want to help people. They’re human beings. They have compassion.”

Organisation to help provide housing for homeless people

However, Robert says he is wary when landlords talk about setting up an organisation to help provide housing for homeless people.

He says: “What I do find with some private landlords is that they are all talk – a bit like councils really.

“Some will say. ‘Yeah, that’s a great idea. We want to do this. We want to do that’.

“But when it comes to it, no one gets off their backside to do it.”

Creating a housing association

Robert’s journey to creating a housing association starts with losing his job and not being able to pay his mortgage.

That sees him having no choice but to rent out his home rather than have it repossessed but that means becoming homeless.

He explains: “So, I was a landlord, but homeless at the same time. Which sounds crazy, doesn’t it?

“But it happens, and the tenant I got in the property I owned was working to start off with, but three months into his tenancy he had an industrial accident and went onto benefits.

“He already had some health issues and the industrial accident affected that more.”

Volunteering for various organisations

While he was homeless and jobless, Robert began volunteering for various organisations, a day centre for the homeless, and the Citizens Advice Bureau.

This meant he could provide his tenant with support and help with his benefit claims, debt management, and many other services.

This also led to social services putting a community care plan in place and Robert became his tenant’s designated support worker.

Robert is still the landlord to the tenant 25 years later and still provides support, as and when needed.

House people who were desperate for somewhere to live

Eventually, Robert began short term contract work within councils’ homelessness teams, helping them to house people who were desperate for somewhere to live, but his ideas for expanding how it is delivered were often ignored.

He says: “Some councils are starting to realise how vital private landlords are, but many of the processes actually discourage private landlords.

“But how can you actually encourage private landlords to let to people on benefits?

“In the homelessness departments I was working in, this was a constant issue because most landlords weren’t really interested in letting to people on benefits.

“So, I looked at it and asked what is it a landlord actually needs from that relationship? What does the tenant need?”

Robert adds: “Most landlords aren’t about making tons of money. They want security. It’s about giving them peace of mind.

“It’s about enabling the landlord to make a small profit but with the security of knowing that they’re not going to be facing any problems, they’re not going to have a tenant from hell.

“And if they do, they’re covered. It’s like an insurance policy that’s needed, giving landlords that assurance, but it’s an insurance policy that doesn’t exist. Like a rent and damage guarantor, but for tenants who cannot usually obtain a guarantor.”

Setting up a homeless charity

Other landlords who responded to the question about setting up a homeless charity have reached out to Robert to explore the idea further.

And just a few days afterwards, the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) announced a tie-up with Crisis to find landlords to provide accommodation for homeless people.

Robert says landlords should be wary about the NRLA/Crisis proposal and explains: “From what I’ve read, it sounds like a “Housing First” programme.

“This is an idea that is often touted as being from Finland but was, I believe, set up in America first, but it has been adopted in Finland whose social welfare and support systems are completely different to ours.

“The idea is that no matter how entrenched a rough sleeper is, you give them a self-contained property, a proper tenancy, and then you give them support to sustain that.”

He cautions: “That sounds great in theory, but that support is meant to be quite intensive at the start and then taper down.

“I believe it’s an expensive way of doing it, compared to the current staged routes out of homelessness using a hostel or refuge, to supported housing, to an introductory tenancy, leading to a secure tenancy or AST in a self-contained property.”

Robert says that for the NRLA/Crisis scheme to work, they need to reassure landlords that their tenants will be given lots of support initially and throughout their tenancy, to act as a responsible tenant to sustain their tenancy long-term. They also need to pay the landlord a reasonable market rent for the property, but unfortunately, the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rent is always several years out of date so would most likely not be sufficient.

‘I didn’t qualify for any council housing’

Robert says: “I was homeless in the nineties, I was a single person in reasonable health, so I didn’t qualify for any council housing, any social housing.

“And because I was unemployed at the time, I found that no private landlord wanted me either.

“So, I fell into this sort of grey area where I couldn’t get any housing, but I was eventually offered a housing association property, but it didn’t belong to the housing association.

“It was one that they leased from a private landlord – a very early form of rent-to-rent, I suppose.

“That was available to me but at market rent, not at social housing rents but I didn’t need the deposit or references or anything like that.

“So, I thought, that’s a great idea.”

The offer eventually led to Robert setting up Choice Housing Trust and providing supported accommodation in Sheffield to help homeless and vulnerable people find somewhere safe to live.

Housing provider running 11 properties with 43 rooms

But there’s still an ambition to do more. Choice Housing Trust provides 11 supported housing properties with a total of 43 rooms, providing work to two support workers, a rough sleeper outreach worker, two cleaners and a handyman.

Robert says: “I think, you know, everyone needs a chance, don’t they?

“The problem is that a lot of the people we help may have already exhausted most of their chances and been evicted from other accommodation before being referred to us, but their previous loss of housing may be due to health issues or inability to deal with things.

“This is where we can step in and provide both housing, and crucially, support so that we can end the cycle of repeat homelessness.”

He adds: “It’s despicable that private landlords are everyone’s target because the press and the likes of Shelter campaign against private landlords.

“There are a few bad landlords but there’s an awful lot of good ones.

“You know, everyone makes mistakes. We’re not all perfect, but there’s a lot of people out there trying to be good landlords.”

Robert says: “I think there should be far more co-operation between landlords, tenants, councils, and the DWP because we are essentially all trying to achieve the same outcomes; good quality housing, at a reasonable rent, and long-term well-behaved tenants – and landlords.”

And with a lot of other landlords who are striving to house homeless people, Robert is one of many who hope that the widespread propaganda that all private landlords are bad, will finally come to an end.

For more information about Robert and Choice Housing Trust, visit the website.

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