Louise Swinden, Property Fund Development Manager at Resonance, writes about the publication of the Women in Safe Homes fund’s first Social Impact Report.

I am delighted that the Women in Safe Homes fund's first social impact report, in partnership with Patron Capital and our charity partners has now been published. It covers the period from December 2020 to the end of March 2021.

As this report has been created during the fund’s infancy, it focuses on the background to the fund and how it has been developed, its impact approach and measures, its progress since the fund launched and key milestones through until January 2022.

As the fund scales, investing in more properties and housing women at risk of homelessness, this annual impact report will share more detail about the fund’s social impact and the difference it is making to women.

The fund launched in December 2020 with £15.5 million raised from four seed investors, Big Society Capital, MacArthur Foundation, Keith Breslauer and Lostand Foundation.

As at April 2021

• The fund size increased to above £20 million, thanks to investment from new investors, including Barrow Cadbury Trust, City Bridge Trust, Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation, The Clothworkers’ Foundation and Comic Relief. It aims to raise £100 million - £200 million from investors
• The fund aims to purchase 650 – 1,300 properties across the fund’s lifetime, housing over 6,000 women
• The fund is purchasing properties including refuges, family homes and shared homes - with the first women housed this autumn

A key part of the fund is its gender-lens focus and approach; it is committed to addressing the gender equality challenges faced by women that can lead to homelessness. This gender lens is applied across all aspects of the fund including the fund’s Senior Board of Advisors – which has representatives from the women’s sector and women with lived experience of multiple disadvantage - whom we are so excited to have on board. We think this might be a first for a social impact homelessness property fund, and I look forward to some of them sharing their stories and experiences through guest blogs and interviews over the coming months.

The stats around women’s homelessness – and the causes of this – are quite shocking. We know that women’s homelessness is often rooted in trauma, domestic abuse, and violence:

• 1.6 million women experienced domestic abuse in 2019
• 35% of women who have slept rough left home to escape violence
• 53% of women in prison experienced physical or sexual abuse in childhood

And sadly, safe housing options for women at risk of homelessness are less than ideal:

• 66% of homeless adults in temporary accommodation are women
• 57.2% of referrals to refuges were declined in 2019/20 - with a 30% shortfall in the number of refuge spaces available
• Nearly 60% of women who are leaving prison do not have a home to go to on release

“As we look forward to the recovery phase from COVID-19 we are pleased to invest in housing provision for groups of people adversely impacted by the pandemic. Women who have experienced domestic abuse or have left the criminal justice system without a safe home to go to are among those groups, and this fund will help address one of their most acute needs which is for a safe and secure home.” Barrow Cadbury Trust 

So, publishing the social impact report and sharing the progress the Women in Safe Home fund is already making, fills me with enormous gratitude for everyone who has been involved – and continues to be – in its creation.

Please download the report here.

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More information about the Women in Safe Homes fund can be found here.