Charity begins at home

The church has a long association with housing provision. Almshouses can trace a history stretching back over 1,000 years and many housing associations, including my own, was set up by congregations wishing to do something about homelessness and housing poverty. The Church of England is seeking to set up a new housing association following on from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s housing commission Report “Coming Home: Tackling the housing crisis together.”

It was with great interest that I attended a meeting in my charity trustee role to hear about the work of Hope Into Action (HIA) and church based organisation which had been successful in galvanising parishes to provide housing and support for people experiencing homelessness. The charity was established by an inspirational founder who used some of his own money to buy the first house (documented in his book “A House Built on Love”).

Now housing almost 500 people per year across the country HIA is a success story of uniting faith, mission, and investment. As we see traditional supported housing declining, I wondered if HIA had struck upon a financial model which could see the sector grow again.

The model is a mixture of directly managed properties and a franchise with residents supported by parish volunteers. The charity reaches out to investors to provide the finance to buy homes, lending the money for an initial 5 years and receiving a return on their investment. The organisation seeks to go beyond providing a roof over people’s head by addressing three types of poverty: Poverty of resources, poverty of identity and poverty of relationships. There is no doubt that the organisation is successful in helping people rebuild their lives: only 6% of those who have served a custodial sentence have re-offended, 90% of residents reported improved relationships, 91% had stable or improving mental health, 53% engaged in volunteering, training or education and 90% maintained their tenancy or had a successful move-on.

Has this organisation cracked the issue of creating a sustainable, scalable mechanism for providing housing for those in need? Maybe, maybe not. From one home in 2010 the charity passed 100 in their portfolio by 2022. Growth, however, brings its own problems. The rent charged brings in about £720,000 of the £1.8m of running the service. Much of the rest comes from donations and grants. HIA has been remarkably successful in raising over £1m last year however every new house increases the fundraising target. There is a danger that too rapid growth could overwhelm the organisation’s ability to sustain itself.

Hope Into Action is an enormous success story however I fear it has not yet found a model which can supplant the existing state funded supporting housing sector. The more I heard from John Kuhrt, their CEO, the more my empathy grew for the dilemma he faces balancing the ambition with the resources available. They have brought huge resource and energy to the problem of homelessness and found a way to mobilise faith communities up and down the land, it’s a great addition to the sector but on its own it is not the silver bullet for the housing crisis, but then again no one solution is.