Resonance has recently hit an incredible milestone: our impact property funds purchased our 1,000th home for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, providing them with a pathway out of homelessness and temporary accommodation.

Our 1,000th home has been bought by Resonance’s National Homelessness Property Funds 2 (NHPF2) and is a 3-bed terraced house in Bolton, providing much needed family accommodation for many years to come.

To date Resonance’s homelessness property funds have housed around 3,000 people, improving their housing opportunities so that some tenants have moved on to live in either their own homes or into private rented housing.

As transitional ‘move on’ housing, Resonance’s impact property funds partner with some of the best and most experienced housing partners across the UK to provide high social impact for people facing housing crisis. Our homes provide tenants with stability whilst housing partners provide people with specialist support to help them sustain their tenancies and rebuild their lives. Tenants are also supported to start saving and prepare for independent living in the private rented housing sector.

Our 1,000th property will be leased later this summer to one of the fund’s housing provider partners, Bolton at Home - part of the Let Us group of ethical registered housing partners in the Greater Manchester region. Bolton at Home provides individuals and families at risk of homelessness in Bolton with a settled, quality and affordable home alongside support, including access to routes to training and employment and to be more independent, contributing towards a more sustainable local community.

Like all the properties purchased by our homelessness property funds, before our milestone home is leased to Bolton at Home, it is not only being refurbished by our property team to a high and decent standard – including a new kitchen and bathroom, new carpets and floor coverings, and redecoration throughout - but it is also having its environmental credentials enhanced.

This means that it will be fitted with a new efficient combi boiler, helping to reduce overall energy consumption and potential savings on energy bills for tenants. And with reduced energy wastage, the new combi boiler has a positive environmental impact too, potentially saving up to 1.92 tonnes of carbon emissions every year1. Additionally, once all the refurbishment work has been completed, the property’s EPC rating will have increased from a D to a C.

Whilst improvements to our 1,000th property are being made, the team at Bolton at Home will be matching – and then preparing - the new tenants for their new home, helping them get ready to move in and to make their new place a safe and stable home of their own.

Eamonn Mullins, Head of Property Acquisitions at Resonance, said: 

“Buying our 1,000th home is a fantastic and important milestone for Resonance and testament to the dedication of the Resonance team, past and present, as well as external stakeholders. It is an incredible achievement and indicates how, by working in partnership with housing provider partners – and with support from the social impact investors in Resonance’s homelessness property funds – this collaborative effort is providing a sustainable solution to the UK’s housing crisis.

“Enabling our tenants to transition from homelessness to becoming part of their community, gaining employment or training, save for their future and giving them the ability to eventually move on into their own private accommodation makes me and the team incredibly proud.

“We are growing our housing stock at a phenomenal rate and are looking for houses, apartments, studios and portfolios of properties to purchase across the UK.”

Diane Simpson, Landlord Services Manager, Bolton at Home, said 

“We’re proud to be part of Let Us, the Greater Manchester ethical lettings project, and as partners of Resonance we’re able to provide more desperately needed social housing across the region. It’s important for us to work with organisations like Resonance who invest in the properties they purchase to ensure the affordable homes that we manage are high quality and tenants are safe, warm and comfortable.

“This milestone of 1,000 homes through Resonance highlights the wider team effort involved as we all do what we can to protect those in our communities who are at risk of homelessness.”

About National Homelessness Property Fund 2

NHPF2 was created in response to the growing need for affordable housing, providing safe and decent homes for people in housing crisis. Initially, the fund focused on providing homes in the Greater Manchester region, where one in 81 people in Manchester is homeless, but the fund is now expanding across the UK.

According to homelessness charity, Shelter2:

• more than 274,000 people – including 126,000 children - in England are homeless.
• 250,000 of these people are living in temporary accommodation, such as B&Bs
• 15,000 single people are living in hostels, and
• 2,700 are sleeping rough on any given night

And with 1 million3 people in England on social housing waiting lists in England, the critical need for Resonance’s homelessness property funds is evident in order to safely and securely house individuals and children who face a housing crisis within our communities, alleviating the use of unsuitable and costly temporary accommodation.

• The fund launched with an initial investment of £20 million in December 2020 and has a target fund size of £50-£100 million and has currently raised £35 million
• The fund aims to purchase 800 homes and partner with a range of housing provider partners across the UK
• Investors include Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Greater Manchester Pension Fund, Big Society Capital
• Housing provider partners include Let Us in Greater Manchester and DHI in Bristol

1 Energy Saving Trust https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/advice/boilers/

2 Shelter: https://england.shelter.org.uk/media/press_release/274000_people_in_england_are_homeless_with_thousands_more_likely_to_lose_their_homes

3 Shelter: https://england.shelter.org.uk/support_us/campaigns/social_housing_deficit