Established 2005 Registered Charity No. 1110656

Scottish Charity Register No. SC043760

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Help renters, says Crisis

March 14 2016
Charity launches a new campaign to battle the  reluctance of landlords willing to rent to homeless people

National homelessness charity Crisis has launched a new campaign – Home: No Less Will Do – in a bid to battle the increasing reluctance of landlords willing to rent to homeless people.

The new campaign, backed by leading landlord groups such as the National Landlords Association and the Residential Landlords Association, hopes to help with securing a place to rent by extending the sort of support that is given to first-time buyers to those who are homeless.

A survey of over 800 private landlords across England shows that a rising number of landlords consider it too risky to rent to homeless people and those supported by benefits.

At the same time, a survey carried out for Crisis found that eight in  10 homeless people had found it difficult to secure somewhere to rent due to deposits, agency fees and paying rent in advance.

Crisis is hoping the campaign will ensure support will be made available to homeless people and their landlords by calling on the government to set up – and pay for – a national rent deposit scheme to help homeless people.

They also want better funding for projects that support new tenancies and a quality assurance scheme introduced.

Chris Norris, head of policy, public affairs and research at the National Landlords Association said: “Schemes that help homeless people into private renting can also help reassure landlords and remove some of these more risky elements. It’s a win-win situation: a homeless person finds a place to live, and the landlord finds a tenant who wants to stay and make the house their home. That’s why we’re backing this campaign and calling on the government to take action”.

Jon Sparkes, chief executive of Crisis, said: “In a highly competitive rental market, homeless people are increasingly left with fewer opportunities to rent, and many simply can’t afford the upfront costs. This is a desperate situation to be in: to be ready to move on and start rebuilding your life only to encounter financial barriers and closed doors.

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