The UK homelessness charity Crisis is set to become a landlord for the first time in its 60-year history, citing a “catastrophic” housing crisis.
Chief executive Matt Downie said the charity plans to launch a fundraising campaign to buy its own housing stock, as access to social housing is no longer reliable.
“We don’t want to do this, but if nobody else provides housing, we’ll do it ourselves,” Downie said. “We wouldn’t be doing this unless the system had failed.”
A new study by Crisis, conducted with Heriot-Watt University, revealed that nearly 300,000 families and individuals in England faced severe homelessness in 2024. This represents a 21% increase since 2022 and a 45% rise since 2012. Homelessness among people leaving hospitals, prisons, or asylum accommodation also surged.
The charity has already launched a lettings agency to help clients access private rentals. The next step is providing its own social housing, starting in London and Newcastle, with tailored support for high-needs tenants. Crisis aims to secure at least 1,000 homes in the first phase, backed by Housing First tenancy support teams.
Downie drew parallels with the origins of UK social housing, noting Crisis is based near the first Peabody estate in London. “We’re effectively having to start again,” he said.
The charity is calling on the government to deliver the long-promised homelessness strategy and to increase housing benefit to reflect private rent costs. While the government has committed £39bn to social and affordable housing over the next decade, Crisis criticized cuts to affordable housing targets in London from 35% to 20%.
Downie warned: “For many years to come, we’ll just keep talking about a bigger problem unless there’s fundamental rethinking. The cost of temporary accommodation is astronomical, and too much of it goes to those exploiting the situation.”
Crisis plans to demonstrate that long-term solutions to homelessness rely on providing secure housing, alongside support for vulnerable tenants.
