Move follows sharp increase in homelessness figures
The homelessness charity Crisis has announced plans to acquire its own housing stock, marking the first time in its six-decade history that it will become a landlord.
Matt Downie, chief executive of Crisis, stated that the charity is preparing to launch a fundraising campaign to purchase properties, citing the lack of available social housing for those experiencing homelessness.
“We don’t want to do this, but if nobody else is going to provide housing, we’ll do it ourselves,” Downie said in an article by The Guardian. “It’s something that would have been inconceivable for my predecessors 10, 30, 50 years ago, because people would have expected both councils and housing associations to provide the stock needed for people on low incomes. It’s just no longer available. We wouldn’t be doing this unless the wheels had come off the homelessness and housing system.”
According to a recent study conducted by Crisis and Heriot-Watt University, nearly 300,000 households in England are facing the most severe forms of homelessness. This includes rough sleeping, living in tents or squats, or residing in unsuitable temporary accommodation such as bed and breakfasts and hostels. The research found that 299,100 households experienced acute homelessness in 2024, representing a 21% increase since 2022 and a 45% rise since 2012.
Crisis has previously established a lettings agency to help its clients access private rented accommodation. The charity is now moving forward with plans to provide social housing for people with high support needs, beginning in London and Newcastle.
“We will proudly go about acquiring and providing our own homes, mainstream housing, because that’s the answer,” Downie said. “We won’t get anywhere without the housing.
“Our strategy is to get to at least a thousand homes in the first phase, and we’ve got Housing First tenancy support teams in those two cities ready to go to support people. But the ambition is to move to something even bigger so that we can demonstrate that the solution to homelessness is housing.”
The charity is urging the government to publish its promised homelessness strategy by Christmas and to increase housing benefit in line with actual private rental costs. The government has pledged £39 billion for its social and affordable homes programme, aiming to build 180,000 new social homes over the next decade.
However, recent changes by housing secretary Steve Reed, who reduced affordable housing targets in London from 35% to 20%, have drawn criticism from Crisis, which is calling for firm assurances that social housing construction will proceed at scale.
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