Matt And Paul: Their Stories Of Homelessness
The story behind the fund
Resonance launched pioneering impact property fund Real Lettings Property Fund 1 (RLPF1) with leading homelessness charity St Mungo’s Real Lettings in 2013. This trail-blazing fund raised £56.8m from socially motivated investors to buy a portfolio of 259 homes across London.
Real Lettings is the social lettings service and social enterprise set up by St Mungo’s to help provide homes for vulnerably housed and homeless people.
RLPF1 houses people in the capital who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in stable, private tenancies without deposits. After buying each of the 259 properties the fund refurbished all of them to a high standard, including making them more energy efficient.
Real Lettings manages the tenancies and supports tenants, working with other partners to help them access support services and become part of local communities. Rent from the properties, a large proportion of which comes from Local Housing Allowance, pays St Mungo’s and Resonance, and provides a yield to the investors.
The social purpose of this fund was - and still is - to help people at risk of homelessness to become more independent, linking stable housing to positive development in other parts of their lives. Providing decent, stable and affordable housing is enabling people to be moved out of inappropriate and temporary accommodation such as B&Bs and hostels.
Following the success of RLPF1, two further impact property funds were launched with housing partner Real Lettings: National Homelessness Property Fund (NHPF1) in December 2015 and Real Lettings Property Fund 2 (RLPF2) in January 2017.
Providing a stable base and a safe, decent and affordable place to call home is continuing to make a difference to tenants’ lives. It is helping them to improve their resilience against homelessness, take steps towards employment, education and training and to feel more hopeful about their futures, including the option to move on into private accommodation and social housing.
Across our five homelessness property funds capital raised was £243m as of March 2022, enabling the purchase of 935 properties so far. And in the last year, these homes housed 2,091 people, including 1,009 children.
To date across all Resonance’s homelessness property funds around 3,000 people have been housed in over 1,000 homes.
