In the last year, homelessness in England has increased significantly with Crisis, a homelessness charity, recently reporting that over 320,000 households – an 8% increase on 2023 – are facing homelessness and over 151,000 children are living in temporary accommodation, a 12.3% increase on last year. Of these, nearly 80,000 households have been affected by the ending of private rental agreements, a number of which were due to no-fault evictions. Many of these households are now living in unsuitable, cramped and unhealthy homes.

Meanwhile, CHAIN (Combined Homelessness and Information Network) published figures showing that between July and September this year, their teams recorded 4,780 people experiencing rough sleeping, the highest number ever recorded over a three-month period, and an 18% increase on 2023.

Solutions to homelessness are urgently needed to address both the immediate and long-term housing needs of the UK.  This means more truly affordable homes and social housing alongside support services for tenants that need it.

Resonance’s seven homelessness property funds are an example of a sustainable and scalable housing solution providing affordable housing for people facing and experiencing homelessness. Social impact investors, including pension funds, local authorities, trusts and foundations, invest in these funds, enabling them to purchase and refurbish properties. These properties are let to expert housing partners across the UK who rent out the properties to local people in need of an affordable and stable home to live in.

One socially-minded investor that has invested in two of Resonance’s homelessness property funds – the Women in Safe Homes fund (for women escaping domestic abuse or leaving prison without a home to go to) and the Resonance Everyone in Fund (for people experiencing rough sleeping in London)– is Monday Charitable Trust.

We recently caught up with Mondays’ Finance Director, David Blake for a Q&A to learn more about the organisation and its mission, why it’s a social impact investor and why it invested in these two Resonance funds, specifically.

Hi David, could you tell us a little about your background and role at Monday Charitable Trust?

I have been involved with the charity since 2016 and work as part-time Finance Director, as well as a member of the Investment and Operations Committees.

And could you explain what Monday Charitable Trust does, its mission, purpose and evolution over time?

Monday Charitable Trust was created in 2008 by Robert and Elspeth Lane and in 2013 they made a very substantial and generous gift to the charity, of the ownership of Chelsea Estates, the family property company, which had been in existence since 1932. The company owned a large property portfolio and whilst most of the property has now been sold and the proceeds reinvested, the charity has been left with a substantial asset base with which to carry out its mission.

In its broadest sense, the purpose of the charity is to improve the life chances of disadvantaged and often marginalised groups in the UK. Its primary themes are housing, education and environmental crises, underpinned by secondary themes of young people, mental health, social mobility and inequality.

Is it helpful that Resonance is mission aligned with your charity's objectives? 

Very much so. The provision of housing is a core theme for our charity and a range of other charitable objectives are served by your charity partners in their use of the property that Resonance funds purchase and leases to them.

Can you explain Monday’s approach to social investment and how you select your investments?

Our approach to social investment has evolved over the last few years. Initially we were somewhat opportunistic in our approach, but now we have decided to make a much bigger commitment to impact investing in general, of which social investment will form an important part of the asset allocation. A major driver of this decision making was the desire to align our investment activity more closely with our charitable objectives.

Monday Charitable Trust has invested in two of Resonance’s property funds, the Resonance Everyone In fund and the Women in Safe Homes fund – can you explain why Monday chose to invest in these funds?

We had a preference to invest in more than one Resonance fund and these two, which were open for investment, addressed a range of themes which are of interest to the charity. Both funds also provided the reassurance of using the tried and tested Resonance investment thesis as well as offering the potential for a decent financial return.

How important is it to you as an investor that both the Resonance Everyone In fund and the Women in Safe Homes funds not only provide homes for people experiencing homelessness but also provide them with wrap around support?

It was very important, because our charity is increasingly interested in funding programmes which address or seek to identify the root causes of issues, as we believe such programmes will deliver the greatest social impact over the long term.

Do you use a framework to measure the impact of your investments?

We don't have our own measurement framework yet, but pay close attention to the impact reporting provided by the investment managers. This is something we would like to develop in the future, but it has its challenges given the wide range of impact outcomes being addressed in different situations.

What are the benefits of making an investment with your endowment, rather than grant making?

We see the two as complimentary, with some themes better lending themselves to grant making than investment and vice versa. One of the attractions of social investment is that we get to recycle the capital into other projects once the particular investment has matured.

Are there any investment challenges facing Monday and the impact investing sector?

Identifying the right things to invest in and relating them directly to our own charitable themes is a challenge. Many funds and investment opportunities address impact generically, which is not always perfectly aligned with our charitable mission.

Also, the impact investment advisory market is not yet very well developed or aligned with foundations' requirements in the UK at present.

Which societal challenges do you think impact investing could make a bigger difference in?

I think impact investing is a great tool to make a difference across a very wide spectrum of societal needs.

In which sectors do you think Monday will invest in the future?

We will focus on our primary themes of housing, education and environmental crises, which I think will keep us occupied for many years to come.

Thanks David!

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. 

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 350 women and children have been housed by the fund.

About the Resonance Everyone In Fund

The Resonance Everyone In Fund (RIEF) was launched in 2021 following the pandemic and is a specialist fund that has partnered with social justice charity, Nacro, to provide secure housing and specialist support services for adults experiencing rough sleeping in London.

The fund raised £16.5m from 6 social impact investors and now has 56 one-bedroom properties in its portfolio, 54 of which are tenanted.