Homelessness charity Crisis to become a landlord for the first time in its history

Matt Downie, Chief Executive of Crisis, said: “From 2026 onwards we will, for the first time in our nearly 60-year history, start the journey to becoming a not-for-profit landlord. We’ll begin by buying one-bedroom homes in London and Newcastle to house people experiencing homelessness who are accessing our services. Our ambition is that over the next three years we will purchase 100 homes, increasing to at least 1000 homes over the next decade.     

“The reason behind this is simple and clear – you can’t end homelessness without homes. Over the years our frontline services have been finding it harder and harder to find genuinely affordable, settled homes for the people we support, leaving them trapped in a cycle of homelessness.     

“The reasons for this are complex and have been years in the making. Decades of policy choices and cuts to funding for welfare, social housing delivery and local authorities has led to a scarcity of homes for people on the lowest incomes.  

“The huge demand for social housing means housing associations are having to make increasingly difficult decisions about who they allocate homes to. For the people we support this can mean years on a waiting list, or not even qualifying for the waiting list in the first place.   

“At the same time, rapidly rising rents are leaving people on low incomes locked out of the private rented sector. This is exacerbated by the freeze on housing benefit which is driving up homelessness and making it harder for landlords to rent to people on low incomes, many of whom are struggling to cover significant shortfalls in rent.   

“At Crisis, we’ve worked productively with landlords for years and have found thousands of good homes for people experiencing homelessness in the private rented sector. However, conditions in the housing market have become so challenging and - with demand for our services on the rise - we need to find a greater supply of genuinely affordable homes.   

“Another big factor at play here is the increasingly desperate situations of some of the people we support. Many of those we work with can’t even access temporary accommodation as demand is so great, leaving them forced to sleep rough. We cannot sit by as this continues to unfold.     

“In response, we’ve sought to be part of the answer, and work alongside local authorities, housing associations, landlords, investors, and others who want to do what’s possible to change this. We’ve made a strategic decision to - effectively - take matters into our own hands and intervene directly in the housing market by becoming a landlord ourselves. What this means is that we’ll start to offer people genuinely affordable, secure homes so that they can rebuild their lives away from homelessness.   

“By doing this, we can also demonstrate to decision makers that managing homelessness with a series of temporary, sticking-plaster solutions is not the answer, nor is it cost-effective. An approach that prioritises supporting people into a safe, secure homes as quickly as possible is the key to ending homelessness for good.”  

Further details

Crisis has established a limited company and is working to deliver 100 homes in the next three years, starting in 2026. This will be supported by a targeted fundraising appeal that we are currently in the planning stages for.     

We are working closely with people with experience of homelessness to develop strategy, policy and procedures.   

We first set out our intentions to provide housing to our members – people experiencing homelessness that Crisis supports – in our 10 year strategy, published in July 2024.