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It's well known that there is a shortage of accommodation in London for homeless people. The Housing and Welfare service frequently finds it difficult to place clients in accomodation.

Accordingly, the Manna has been exploring other ways to find housing. We spent some time investigating rent deposit schemes, before starting our own at the end of 2005.

Our research showed us that four things are needed for a successful scheme:

• money
• the right tenants, able to manage a private tenancy
• support for tenants
• a supply of housing, with landlords prepared to take homeless people, as the rent would be paid by housing benefit.

Initially, the Manna committee decided to put up £5,000 for rent deposits. We partnered with another charity with experience of managing a rent deposit scheme. It critical that we choose only those able to manage their own flat.

It works in the following way

The landlord we work with is very generous in that he requires only a small deposit of £200 and is prepared to wait for his first month’s rent when any applicable Housing Benefit has been calculated by the local authority. The Manna Society has a direct agreement with the landlord whereby the deposit will be refunded directly to us when the individual leaves the premises.

But it was also felt that this was the first step towards personal independence and that we would ask those clients who gained accommodation through this scheme to treat this as a savings scheme and repay the deposit to the society at the rate of £5 per week. Thus, they built up a small nest-egg to take on to future accommodation to be repaid to them when they left the accommodation we had placed them in, so hopefully they do not find themselves in such a situation again.

If they repaid us, that would enable us to recycle our original funds of £5,000 to offer the deposit scheme to an even greater number of potential clients. To date, we have lent just over £3,500 and still have just over £2,200 to lend to suitable candidates.

Why such a scheme is so important

Many of the clients who ask us for help with their housing are people who are considered “low support” – that is, they don’t fit into the acceptance criteria for many hostels that are more geared to people who have mental health, substance abuse or learning disability needs, just to give a few examples. Consequently, they are not going to get housed through the hostel route and in many ways, it would be totally unsuitable accommodation for them. They are quite simply people who have fallen between a “rock and a hard place” – lost a job or a relationship or actually in employment but with low earnings and not able to afford other forms of private rented accommodation or cannot save enough to get a deposit together.

With private rented accommodation at such a premium in London and so few landlords who are prepared to accept housing benefit, such schemes are very valuable for people who find themselves in this position.

We're very pleased with the scheme. We've provided deposits for 19 tenants, although two have moved on and so we've got their deposits back, leaving us with 17. Two-thirds are paying us back - and we're talking to the remaining 6 people to help them start paying us.

Some stories

Just to give you some idea of the sort of people who come forward for the scheme and why it is so worthwhile to help them.

Constanza – the worker bee

Let me introduce you to Constanza. Constanza had been living with her sister in Southwark for the last two years. Her sister unfortunately has full-blown HIV and is subject to quite severe mental health problems. It became impossible to continue to live with her and to take care of her as her behaviour became quite extreme and it was possible that she would be re-housed in supported housing where her needs could be met. This would mean that Constanza would lose her place in her sister’s home.

At the time she came to see us, she was doing two jobs; working as a daily au-pair and also doing a cleaning job. She is one of the most honest, reliable and hard-working people you could ever wish to meet. We were able to provide the deposit to her and establish her in one of the properties to which our partner agency had access. She has been there a year, working as hard as ever.

Constanza’s first language is Spanish and she needs help in handling some of the forms and understanding the implications. Following on from getting her resettled, it became clear that she was experiencing some difficulties with back-dating Housing Benefit as she was entitled to a certain amount as her earnings were low. Through a partner agency, we have arranged for her to work with a mentor who can help her with such problems on an on-going basis as one of her jobs is near to their offices and it is easier for her to see them rather than make the much longer journey to our day centre.

Wally – in thrall to high rents

And then there is Wally. He had been placed in a hostel by one of the outreach teams who work with people who are rough sleeping but his needs were not really high enough to justify placing him in an environment where he felt stifled in terms of getting employment as the cost of such 24 hour care hostels are so high – the hostel he had been placed in cost £711 per month. On top of the rent, this hostel charged a service charge of £24 per week for non-self-catering clients who were provided with breakfast and evening meal.

Wally wanted to get back into work but to cover his costs at the hostel; he would have had to earn around £1,000 per month to cover the hostel rent and service charges, pay tax and National Insurance. The net result is that he could not afford to return to work and stay in that hostel. He decided to leave the hostel and started to rough sleep again or stayed on an infrequent basis with friends.

He came to us about private rented accommodation. The landlord we use most frequently charges £75 per week inclusive of bills – a reasonable rate for a room in London. This equates to £325 a month, a much more affordable amount for people on lower incomes. He can also make choices about food and prepare his own in the shared kitchens. He has been there since December and actively seeking work.

I hope this illustrates that with re-housing people, you cannot have a “one size fits all” kind of approach and flexibility and some attention to people’s aspirations to be independent and move on because they are at a stage where they can move on is absolutely essential.

At the end of the day, the generosity of our supporters allows us to do this and I hope when you have finished reading this, you will know how important such a scheme is and how grateful those who benefit from it are to those who have made it possible. And, if the dream is to see fewer people in poverty and without a home to go to, then this scheme in its own small way helps that aim to be furthered.