Innovation Exchange

What is the problem you are going to solve?

Homeless people in temporary hostel accommodation face a “catch-22” when they are offered a permanent tenancy elsewhere because they do not have the finances to acquire basic and essential furniture. Often they either cannot move out of the hostel and into the tenancy, or they leave the tenancy within a short time. To buy this essential furniture, they usually apply for a Community Care Grant, which can take can take several weeks to process. If they do not move into the tenancy then they cannot claim Housing Benefit and they then build up rent arrears. Put simply, the choice is to either live in a property without any essential furniture or accrue rent arrears for a property that they are not living in. A hostel manager describes the problem “It’s more about the sustainability of the tenancies. Often people would move out of the accommodation quickly (often in the first few days), if they arrive with no furniture and accrued arrears.”

How are you going to do it?

The objective of “Fresh Start” is to provide people leaving hostels with low cost essential furniture on credit. If they have this vital furniture they can take up their unfurnished tenancies without having to wait for the Community Care Grant, begin to claim housing benefit immediately and ultimately increase the likelihood of remaining in the tenancy. Two innovative social businesses that are part of FRC Group can make this happen – Bulky Bob’s collects bulky household waste (furniture and white goods) and Revive sells ‘pre-loved’ furniture to low-income households. People leaving hostels can have a choice of new or pre-loved furniture from our Revive and pay for it once they have received their Community Care Grant. We have piloted the scheme and want to expand and improve it to increase the social impact that it creates.

Who will benefit?

Primarily, people leaving hostels to move into a permanent tenancy will have the essential furniture needed to take up the tenancy and access the Housing Benefit and Community Care Grants, increasing the likelihood that they will maintain the tenancy. We ran a pilot with ten homeless men, who were all still in their tenancies 9 months after receiving their “Fresh Start” furniture, one said “Fresh Start” gave him “Peace of mind – at the hostel it was on my mind about how I would furnish my flat. I went to Revive a couple of times to look at furniture. Everything purchased was spotless”. Furthermore, Hostels will be able to reduce ‘bed blocking’ as the route out for people offered a permanent tenancy would be improved. For Housing Associations, the scheme would reduce the build up of rent arrears and improve the sustainability of tenancies.