Many of the women housed by the Women in Safe Homes fund’s housing partners, have experienced some kind of trauma in their lives including domestic abuse, trafficking, mental health issues and leaving prison without a home to go to. Most of them will need some kind of support to help them in their recoveries from their experiences, and to empower them to take their lives forward in a positive direction, and as such, most of the housing provided by the fund falls into the category of supported housing.
Housing of this type enables people to live with independence in their local community, thanks to the support services they can access. Support can include financial, health and wellbeing and – for women housed by the Women in Safe Homes fund – specialist and trauma-focused.
The fund is providing women with a safe, stable place to live, and its housing partners are supporting women through their trauma informed and wraparound specialist support services.
Because supported housing is accommodating some of the most vulnerable people in society it’s essential that both the housing and support are of a high quality and that it has a positive impact on their lives. Whilst the majority of supported housing providers in the UK deliver high quality homes and support to tenants, there are providers who do not.
In 2020, the government announced its National Statement of Expectations for supported housing; its vision for ways of working in the sector and recommendations for standards in accommodation, drawing on expertise and best practice and ‘what good looks like’ in supported housing accommodation. The Supported Housing Act 2023 gained Royal Assent in June 2023, with the aim of improving the quality and conditions of exempt supported housing and to protect tenants.
At the Women in Safe Homes fund’s Housing Partner Forum last week – an online event with a focus on supported housing and housing benefit – Louise Swinden, Resonance’s Property Fund Manager, introduced the group of housing partner attendees to Sarah Carpenter, Policy Advisor at Ministry of Housing, Local Government and Communities, who updated the group on the Supported Housing Act and the (current) public consultation, following the change of government.
Sarah explained that a Westminster Hall debate was held on the 5 September which confirmed that the government wants to implement all the measure in the Act as soon as possible. The Supported Housing Review was published in early November providing a snapshot of supported housing supply, demand, funding and commissioning across the UK and that recruitment to the Supported Housing Advisory panel – which is still currently looking for representatives from across the sector – closes on 9 December. The government has committed to publish the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act consultation in the new year. Following the consultation the regulations will be drafted. The regulations will be subject to the affirmative procedure and will need to be debated in Parliament.
As part of the forum’s focus on supported housing, Isabella Lowenthal-Isaacs from Women’s Aid also spoke to and with the group about Women’s Aid’s position on the Act, trends observed in housing benefit and council tax over the last year and how the charity hopes to help shape the regulations.
During the forum, a Q&A and smaller breakout groups enabled housing partners to discuss thoughts and issues with Sarah and Isabella, covering all these topics and more.
The fund’s six-monthly forums are proving to be valuable sessions, connecting housing partners with each other and with expert speakers and presenters to share learnings, best practice and experiences in delivering high-quality housing and specialist support to women. Besides the fund’s most direct impact being its support for vulnerable women, one of its other aims is its impact on ‘systems’. The forums are starting to establish themselves as a space where the fund and its partners can come together to raise awareness and influence systems, as a collective, of women’s needs, and systemic problems like funding streams and resource flows and the need for the ways that various government, local authority and support systems work so that they are more connected across services with a flexible and trauma-informed approach.
About the Women in Safe Homes fund
The Women in Safe Homes fund is a gender-lens impact investment property fund helping address the housing crisis for women escaping domestic abuse, leaving the criminal justice system without a home to go to and at risk of or experiencing homelessness. It was launched in December 2020 as a joint venture of Resonance and Patron Capital because there is a chronic shortage of safe, decent and affordable housing for women at risk of and experiencing homelessness.
In 2023, 1.4 million women in the UK experienced domestic abuse, one of the leading causes of women’s homelessness, with 70% of survivors having a housing need.
The fund raised £29m from over twenty impact investors and has now closed, focusing on deployment, and has so far purchased 78 properties for its nine housing partners. So far, over 380 women and children have been housed by the fund’s partners.
