“Handing a property over to Women in Safe Homes charity partners and women’s sector organisation really is the best feeling – it means another woman has a safe home to live in.”

Resonance’s Sarah Haynes explains how the Women in Safe Homes fund chooses, buys, and refurbishes properties before handing them over to charity partners so that women in need of decent, affordable housing can be provided with the right home for them.

Believed to be one of the world’s first gender-lens property funds, the Women in Safe Homes fund provides a solution to the lack of affordable, safe and good-quality homes for women experiencing homelessness, many of whom are survivors of domestic abuse, are leaving the criminal justice system, have mental health issues, or other complex needs.  The fund is an impact investment property fund co-managed by a joint venture of Resonance and Patron Capital, a pan-European institutional investor.

It aims to provide 650+ homes across the UK and to house 6,000 women over its lifetime.

The fund purchases properties and leases them to its charity partners who rent the homes to women with a secure tenancy. The fund’s charity partners – who include Preston Road Women’s Centre (Winner), Nacro, Refuge, Daizybell Homes, Safer Places, Sateda, Stop Domestic Abuse, and Ella’s - not only support women from a housing and tenancy perspective but, importantly, also provide them with person-centred specialist support, helping them recover from abusive or 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 future.

Women’s housing need

There is an acute need for women-only housing across the country. Many women who find themselves at risk of homelessness are in this position because of past trauma, abuse, poverty and mental health issues. In order to help them recover and move on with their lives, it’s essential that rather than be housed in often inappropriate, temporary accommodation such as hostels (usually mixed gender) and B&Bs, women are provided with the right housing and specialist support that meets their individual needs. Temporary accommodation is unable to create stability for women who will have to move, sometimes repeatedly.

• 1.6m women experienced domestic abuse in 2020
• 60% of referrals to women’s refuges are turned away – due partly to a 30% shortfall in refuge spaces available
• 32% of women who slept rough, left home to escape violence
• 66% of adults in temporary accommodation are women
• 62% of women leave prison without a safe home to go to

How we select properties

The fund’s portfolio of housing - property types, lease lengths, type of housing benefit – offered to women via the fund’s charity partners is aligned with the needs of women and offers the opportunity for them to move to different types of housing as circumstances change. For this reason, charity partners set property criteria which is suitable for the women they support and approve every single individual property that the fund purchases.

The fund sources suitable properties through Resonance’s and Patron’s networks by a team of experienced property acquisition consultants, acquiring property that meets the housing needs of charity partners – and additionally ensuring there is a growing pipeline of properties.

The types of houses we buy

In line with the specific circumstances and needs of women, there are several factors the fund considers when buying properties.

For example, for women leaving prison, the fund is buying mostly 2-bedroom shared properties so that two women can share a home. Properties are chosen in agreement with Nacro, a social justice charity supporting women prison-leavers, alongside assessments with the local council, police force and Ministry of Justice to ensure suitable locations.

For women escaping domestic abuse, the fund is purchasing a range of property types, such as family homes – some with ‘sanctuary’ rooms and additional safety measures, some larger properties for shared refuge and emergency accommodation which consist of self-contained flats, so each woman has her own personal space, but which also include communal spaces including lounges, kitchens and therapy rooms.

All the homes the fund buys are “ordinary homes in ordinary streets”, in local communities. They are close to public transport, local facilities and amenities including support centres, shops, doctors’ surgeries, libraries, schools and green spaces. And homeliness is key to enable women to create a home for themselves; the process of “making a home” has been shown to build self-esteem and generate a desire to sustain a tenancy, encouraging the occupier to save and eventually move-on positively to further independent accommodation.

Refurbishing properties

The fund has developed a refurbishment specification that delivers high housing standards.

which fit the charity partners’ requirements for tenants, as well as enhancing each property’s environmental credentials. This ensures properties are as energy efficient as possible, helping to reduce some costs for tenants.

As it is aligned with the EPC targets set by the Climate Change Committee and government consultation that all properties have a minimum C rating by 2028, one of the fund’s aims is for at least 90% of its properties (with a very small exception) to score a minimum C and above EPC rating. So, as part of our overall investment process, the fund has an active strategy for assessing EPC ratings of properties and reviewing ways to increase them. Energy saving and efficiency improvements made by our refurbishment teams include low energy lighting, A-rated gas condensing boilers, high heat retention storage heaters, renewable systems where possible including battery storage, air-source heat pumps and hydrogen fuel cell heating systems.

Where are we buying homes in the UK?

Since the fund launched, our team has been busy buying properties in several parts of the country to meet the needs of our national and regionally based charities. This includes small clusters of properties in the North East, South East and London with a growing pipeline of properties in locations across England.

Properties the fund has bought, refurbished and handed over to charity partners

1. This 2-bedroom property matched the charity partner’s requirements for a woman who had experienced domestic abuse. The property was visited by both the charity and the fund before being purchased. The charity partner liked it because it was in a good ‘micro location’, providing a small town feel and well connected to a city centre. It was situated on main road offering good visibility, an enclosed rear garden and good access to schools and local amenities.

2. This 3-bedroom, 2-3 person shared housed met Nacro’s requirements for women who had left the criminal justice system. Nacro liked it because it was a good-sized property with 3 double rooms and communal areas, a small, enclosed garden to the rear and well-served by local amenities.

3. This 2-bedroom property was matched to the charity partner’s requirements for shared emergency accommodation for women fleeing domestic abuse. The charity partner liked it because it was in a safe, low-crime area and good micro location, close to other properties. It was also close to a women’s centre and other community amenities including shops and schools.

Lisa Hilder, Treasurer of Winner, the Preston Road Women’s Centre: “Having somewhere safe, secure and of decent quality to live in is the first step to recovery after any difficult life experience and in particular domestic abuse. Once a woman and her family are settled in a new home then the process of healing and moving forward can begin.“

The Women in Safe Homes fund has currently raised £26.2m from 13+ UK and US impact investors and aims to reach a target fund size of £100m+.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE WOMEN IN SAFE HOMES FUND HERE 

READ THE WOMEN IN SAFE HOMES FUND FIRST SOCIAL IMPACT REPORT HERE 

Sources:
Prison Reform Trust: Safe Homes For Women Leaving Prison