Houses of Multiple Occupancy - Any Moneysavers Work For a Charity that OWNS Theirs

nothomeless

Hello!

First post so hope I'm in correct place.

Charity that I work for involving homeless & disadvantaged people does a very good job at getting some clients into their own accomodation.

The charity does all the paperwork & finds landlords that are good enough to take on our people. Many have drug/alcohol issues, but are of course entitled to housing benefits & other help, to get them a roof over their heads.

I've been thinking it may be n option for the charity to buy property ourselves & be in a better position to offer help & accomodation, rather than wait for something to be on offer from private landlords.

So, if you'd be kind enough to give some input, like how difficult to manage, say a 5 bedroom property (or maybe 2 or 3 properties) & what are going to come up against?

Thanks very much!

NotHomeless

Hump

I think the capital outlay in securing & refurbing a property will be massive - there aren't any big pots of public funds around anymore and many housing providers are pulling out of the 'supported housing' sector due to their inability to make the current funding regime work for them. Your charity's money would be better spent accessing existing privately rented accommodation and then focusing on supporting your vulnerable clients.

Seanymph

there are companies that do this - I saw one guy on Homes Under the Hammer who had set up a charity to do it, he was an estate agent and does it 'part time' and had built up a REALLY big London portfolio.

I don't think that there are any benefits to renting to ex homeless than there are renting to any other tenant. So the question is really 'do the charity struggle to 'move' their clients along to privately rented individual accomodation and do the clients need more support when living alone.

As its' a charity geared for a particular client group then it should be about the benefit to that client group - not the difficulty in management for the group.