If you have property that you want to let, and are visiting this website, you must have at least some interest in what it would mean to let your property to someone who has been homeless.
You can use this website to find out about
PRS schemes in London. Many want to attract more landlords, so that they can offer more homeless people more options. Contact details for each of the schemes are included, as well as information about where they are based.
Below is some further information that you should consider if you are looking to rent a property to someone who is or has been homeless.
Who are homeless people?
Homelessness can affect anyone – there is no such thing as a typical homeless person.
Homeless people are not just the people that you see sleeping rough on the streets – many will never have been street homeless. They may have been living in a B&B, a hostel, or in a squat.
Homelessness arises because of circumstances and factors that combine to cause a crisis in someone’s life. This can include divorce, bereavement, unmanageable debts, drug and alcohol misuse, or mental health problems.
Homelessness agencies across London work with homeless people to get back on their feet and manage or deal with the problems that made them homeless.
By the time that those agencies are supporting their clients to move into the PRS, they will have already made considerable progress. Moving into the PRS would be one of the final and vital steps they take away from homelessness, and leading a more settled, happy, independent lifestyle.
How you can help
The most important way in which you can help is to be open to the idea that homeless people are like any other tenants. In some ways, they may be much more reliable. This is because after the trauma of homelessness, finding a settled home is something that they are far less likely to take for granted.
And on top of this, if you sign up to one or more of the available access schemes, in most cases your tenant will have support staff. These staff can also actually be a point of contact for you, and help to sort out any difficulties. Compared to letting to someone with no professional support to maintain their tenancy, letting to someone who has been homeless can be very straightforward.
So, take a look at the
PRS schemes database, and consider how you may be able to help tackles homelessness.
Housing Benefit/Local Housing Allowance
Many people would assume that homeless people are unemployed. Actually, many people do work, and would be moving in to the PRS with a full time job, and like any other tenant will be able to pay the rent out of their own earnings.
However, many will also be unemployed, and will be claiming Housing Benefit. As any landlord who has let a property to a Housing Benefit claimant knows, Local Authority administration can be slow.
Many of the people we work with became homeless after being evicted because of Housing Benefit administration problems.
The important thing to consider here then, is how much this disruption in short term cashflow will be a problem for you. If a delay of a few weeks will cause you serious financial problems (e.g. not being able to make the mortgage repayment), then it may not be a good idea to let to someone who has been homeless – because we do not want them to be made vulnerable because of an administration problem that is out of their control.
But if a short term delay in a Housing Benefit payment is not going to cause you too much difficulty (and bearing in mind that the money will come through eventually), then letting to someone who has been homeless could be a very rewarding thing to do.