Quaker Housing Trust: practical approaches to housing need
Established in 1967, Quaker Housing Trust (QHT) takes practical action to address homelessness. Jennifer Allott explains why its work remains just as urgent today.
Following significant changes to housing policy during the pandemic, we are now returning to previous patterns of homelessness. The pandemic saw 37,000 people who were sleeping rough provided with shelter. Legislation was introduced to suspend bailiff enforcement of evictions.
However, these changes didn't last. In 2022 around 96,000 UK households are living in temporary accommodation, including over 120,000 dependent children. Research by Shelter found that only a third of those people sleeping rough who had been provided with emergency accommodation during the pandemic had been placed in accommodation and remained there for six months.
Providing safe, stable homes
QHT provides grants and loans for social housing projects for those in housing need. We work with a range of organisations, often supporting them over many years to develop and expand their provision.
The organisations we work with engage with many different groups. Many people experience homelessness at different points in their lives. It may be because they have to flee violence in the home, because addiction makes it hard for them to maintain a tenancy, or because they have recently arrived in this country as a refugee. A safe, stable home at these moments of transition can make an enormous difference to a person's life.
For many of the organisations we work with, the pandemic caused delays to their housing projects. It also disrupted our normal donations, meaning we had to suspend grant- and loan-making for much of 2021.
Creating new housing
We're delighted that projects are now moving forward. During 2022 we made four new awards:
- QHT will contribute to the cost of purchasing a property in Middlesbrough, which Open Door (North East) will use to house refugees and asylum seekers.
- Waltham Forest Churches Night Shelter will be supported to develop longer-term accommodation for people moving on from their Branches Night Shelter.
- In Edinburgh we awarded Common Ground Against Homelessness a grant and loan to renovate and refurbish a four-bedroom property. This will create nine new permanent homes for men who have been homeless.
- We are supporting Street Connect Glasgow to purchase a two-bedroom flat. This will be used as accommodation for those affected by drug and alcohol addictions, who have successfully completed a period in residential rehabilitation and are in transition to living fully independent lives in the community.
Funding housing projects
In the last five years, Quaker Housing Trust has made 52 grants and loans. We make capital awards to create new homes. We also fund organisations to get their projects off the ground, for example by funding a feasibility study or an environmental assessment. Our trustees are currently considering a scheme to support Quaker meetings to look at using buildings or land to develop social housing.
