IMPACT THEME: Housing & Homelessness, Health, Wellbeing and Social Care, Poverty and Disadvantage

WHAT THEY DO: Cyrenians tackle the causes and consequences of homelessness

YEAR FOUNDED: 1968

LOCATION: Scotland

PARTNERSHIP DATE: June 2023

FUND PARTNERSHIP: Women in Safe Homes fund

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS: 

ABOUT: Cyrenians tackles the causes and consequences of homelessness. With a clear focus on prevention and reaching those on the cusp of homelessness as well as those in crisis and in recovery, we take a values-led and person-centred approach. Cyrenians build relationships that support people to flourish and move towards more positive and stable futures.

In Scotland, domestic abuse is the main cause of women’s homelessness, and in 2022:

• There were 64,807 incidents of domestic abuse, 81% of which were experienced by women
• 1 in 5 women who experience domestic abuse face homelessness at some point

34,000 homeless applications were made, of which:

• 6,800 are single women
• 5,780 are single women with children

PURPOSE OF PARTNERSHIP: 

The Women in Safe Homes fund’s eighth housing partner is Cyrenians, an Edinburgh based charity that aims to tackle the causes and consequences of homelessness in Scotland. As the fund’s first Scottish partner, Cyrenians will be providing desperately needed safe homes for women experiencing domestic abuse and homelessness, specifically in Edinburgh where a shortage of housing is most acutely felt.

Cyrenians is partnering with the Women in Safe Homes fund on the same basis as its existing Housing First work, an approach which gives people the space to heal, rebuild and access lasting support with safe, stable housing. This partnership also fulfils one of Cyrenians’ key strategic aims to reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness and provide innovative housing solutions to some of the most vulnerable people living in the city. 

The fund is aiming to buy and refurbish 30 properties in Edinburgh to Cyrenians’ property specifications - 17 have been purchased so far. These properties will be a mix of family homes and one-beds and will house around 200 women and their children experiencing homelessness, over the fund’s lifetime.

In April of this year, the fund was delighted when Scottish Housing Minister, Paul McClennan visited one of these properties (before a woman moved in) with Cyrenians’ CEO Ewan Aitkin, Director of Services, Amy Hutton and Resonance’s CEO, Daniel Brewer. 

Cyrenians is joining the fund’s existing housing partners in not only supporting women from a housing and tenancy perspective but, crucially, also providing every woman with person-centred specialist support, helping them recover from abuse and difficult circumstances. This enables them to find stability, rebuild their lives, and ultimately empower them so that they can have choice and control over their futures.

Louise Swinden, Resonance’s Property Fund Development Manager and lead on the Women in Safe Homes fund, said: “Sadly for too many women, their home is an unsafe place to be. So we are very pleased to be partnering with Cyrenians - both the Women in Safe Homes fund and Resonance's first housing partner in Scotland - to provide much-needed safe and affordable long-term housing for women most at risk of homelessness.

“This new partnership will see around 200 women and their children housed in Edinburgh, where the need for this type of housing is most acute. These properties will enable women to start their recovery from trauma in a place they can truly call home.”

Keith Breslauer, Managing Director of Patron Capital, said: “This partnership between Cyrenians and the Women in Safe Homes fund is a hugely important step in expanding the fund’s reach to provide much needed help to vulnerable women in Scotland. Together Cyrenians, Resonance and Patron Capital have the right combination of charitable and real estate expertise to deliver high quality homes for women most in need of a safe place to live. Without a safe, secure place to live, women who are homeless or victims of domestic abuse find it much harder to care for children, gain employment, access healthcare, or arrange benefits. The fund is aiming to tackle this significant issue, helping to improve lives across the UK and continue to highlight important societal problems that need addressing.”

Amy Hutton, Director of Services at Cyrenians, said: “We are delighted to launch this partnership with Resonance, an innovative project that we are particularly proud of, bringing social investment to an area of significant housing need. In Scotland, one in five women cite domestic abuse or abusive household dispute as a reason for homelessness, and we know from our work that many of these women end up entering mainstream homelessness systems which can be unsuitable, unsafe and retraumatising. The Women in Safe Homes fund will do as it says - offer safe homes to women when they are needed most.”

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