Like most of the country, London is experiencing an unprecedented housing crisis. One in 50 Londoners are currently homeless and living in temporary accommodation, often well beyond the six-week limit set by the government1. Currently in the Capital:

• 170,000 people, including 83,500 children, living in temporary accommodation2
• 3,242 homeless families living in hotel rooms and B&Bs3
• 302,000 people on social housing waiting lists in London boroughs in 20224
• Over 10,000 people sleeping rough in 2022/23 (a 21% increase on 2021/22) with 6,391 of them new to rough sleeping5
• Only 2.3% of properties in London are affordable for people claiming Local Housing Allowance (LHA), in 2022-236

Resonance has been providing a solution to homelessness in London since 2013, through four of our homelessness property funds, including National Homelessness Property Fund 2 (NHPF2). So far, these funds own over 650 properties in the capital that are housing people who had been experiencing a housing crisis. Working alongside our expert housing partners, the funds are not only providing a roof over tenants’ heads but through the support of these housing partners o that they can find stability and rebuild their lives.

Our latest  housing partner in London for our NHPF2 fund  is Capital Letters, an independent not-for-profit organisation that is owned by London boroughs, supported by Government and working to end housing insecurity and homelessness in the capital. The fund has now started handing properties over to Capital Letters and tenants are now being housed. So, we thought this would be an opportune moment to catch up with Elizabeth Harper, Director of Operations at Capital Letters, to tell us more about the organisation, the housing situation in London and why they partnered with NHPF2.

Q: Hi Elizabeth, would you mind telling us a little about Capital Letters, what you do, who you help?

Elizabeth: Capital Letters is a membership organisation made of ten London boroughs. We work on behalf of our members to identify solutions to homelessness, particularly family homelessness. We source properties in the private sector that households can rent, and work with investors to bring property portfolios into our own management in order to increase the flow of properties available at Local Housing Allowance (LHA) - that part of a household’s benefits that is available for housing costs. We have an ethical lettings agency offering landlords a fairly priced service for properties that are safe and secure.

Q: Why did Capital Letters partner with Resonance’s National Homelessness Property Fund 2?

Elizabeth: Capital Letters and Resonance are both focussed on the alleviation of homelessness.

We share values and a deep commitment to pursuing solutions that have a lasting positive impact on those households that we house.

Working with Resonance we can have confidence that we have a supply of properties that meet our rigorous standards; that the investment into the properties meets the BCorp principles and delivers positive social and environmental impact and that we have a strategic partner that already has a track record for delivering positive social Impact.

Q: What is the housing/homelessness situation in the capital?

Elizabeth: Households in London have at least a threefold challenge. There is limited supply of properties to rent - and this supply is almost non-existent where a household is reliant on benefit to cover its housing costs.

Households have been dealing with cost-of-living increases, particularly in the past three years, with food and fuel prices really challenging a household's budget and financial resilience. Whether renting or funding a mortgage, costs have consistently risen, and more households are presenting as homeless as a result of this.

Landlords continue to leave the private rented sector. They face financial challenges too - in part as a change in the tax treatment of rental property Income, in part because landlords also have mortgages to fund, partly due to confusion about local authority licencing schemes and in part because of the uncertainty as to the impact of the Renters (Reform) Bill and other potential regulatory changes.

Q: Can you tell us a little about the tenants being housed and support they are given or can access if needed?

Elizabeth: The tenants are mixed; there are seven lone parent families, two couples, and some tenants who are sharing a home. All of the households went through an affordability assessment and they were helped with benefits, Universal Credit (UC) and council tax support. The great thing is that we were able to maximise income for several tenants, that included reversing underpaid UC and making sure the correct payments continued, reducing expenditure through prescription prepayment certificates and making sure that Child Benefit was being claimed.

Q: What is the difference that decent homes make to people’s lives, especially if they have been experiencing homelessness?

Elizabeth: Having a home is something that should be taken for granted. For nearly 170,000 Londoners this is not the case. A home is a place to close the door on the outside world, to feel safe and protected and settled. It is a place from which to build or rebuild; to recover from the trauma of homelessness or housing insecurity, from relationship breakdown and uncertainty. Having a home helps rebuild dignity, an address gives rise to the possibility of working, the privacy to study, the opportunity to build relationships - create new futures. There are nearly 84,000 children in Temporary Accommodation in London, many miss school, have worse education outcomes, greater issues with health and particularly poor mental health. It’s important to know and remember that for both a child’s present and future a home changes everything.

Q: Why is it important everyone has access to a safe, decent and affordable home?

Elizabeth: My view is that we, as a society, cannot be alright if we are not all alright. The psychological damage of seeing homelessness, hearing about families living in unsuitable temporary accommodation or other housing and the effect that this has on our society in terms of educational attainment, social cohesion and health is something that affects all of our communities. With decent housing for all, the health outcomes of our communities improve, the costs to our society reduces - we all benefit.

Q: What is rewarding about working in this sector?

Elizabeth: It is sometimes difficult to identify the reward when the work that you are trying to deliver is that of systemic change. As a person who has worked directly with homeless people the rewards (and challenges) were often very tangible. But it is the belief that systemic change can and must happen that drives me; without this, we will never address the underlying causes of homelessness and will continue to see the same issues being repeated for each generation. In the work that I do at Capital Letters, I believe that by being committed into the long term to be a landlord of scale whose focus is on letting properties at LHA whenever that is possible, can help to deliver the change that London's families need.

Thank you, Elizabeth!

About National Homelessness Property Fund 2 (NHPF2)

NHPF2 purchases properties in the heart of local communities, chosen with the fund’s expert housing partners. Properties are refurbished to a high standard including improving their energy efficiency and once refurbished, they are handed over to housing partners to manage tenancies and support tenants.

Stable homes allow tenants to transition from homelessness to becoming part of their community, gaining employment or training, saving for their future and giving them the ability to eventually move on into their own private accommodation.

The fund is currently working with twelve expert housing partners across the UK and is housing tenants in over 220 properties, with over 320 properties in its portfolio so far. It has ambition to scale and to purchase around 1,500 homes to provide decent and affordable homes for 16,000 people over its lifetime.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT NATIONAL HOMELESSNESS PROPERTY FUND 2, HERE.

1, 2 & 3:  London Councils https://beta.londoncouncils.gov.uk/news/2023/one-50-londoners-homeless-housing-disaster-unfolds-capital

4 GOV.UK https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-rents-lettings-and-tenancies#full-publication-update-history

5 GOV.UK https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/chain-reports

6 LSE and Savills, Supply of Private Rented Sector Accommodation in London, July 2023 https://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/members-area/member-briefings/housing-and-planning/private-rented-sector-supply-london