How to apply

Who can apply?

Voluntary sector and non-profit organisations that provide services to single homeless people can apply for grants if they meet the funding criteria. Applications are welcome from consortia of organisations that are led by a homelessness agency.

To apply, organisations must be one of the following:

a registered charity
a voluntary and community unincorporated charitable association
a community benefit society registered as an industrial and provident society
a community interest company
an organisation of another type if it operates as a social enterprise and principally reinvests its surpluses for social benefit

To be eligible to apply, organisations:

must provide services to single homeless people, in particular rough sleepers or those at risk of rough sleeping
should spend more than 50% of their income on single homeless people
must submit their most recent set of signed audited accounts

What can be applied for?

All applications must demonstrate how they address the national and local priorities for the fund and contribute to the overall objective of ending rough sleeping and reducing homelessness.

For round 2 we have introduced an online eligibility questionnaire which is on the HTF website. Once this is submitted the HTF team will review your information and send you a link to the online application form if you are eligible for funding.

In 2012, the Homelessness Transition Fund will make £8 million in grants available through two programmes:

Small Grants

The Small Grants Programme aims ‘To protect and enhance essential and strategically critical services for single homeless people and support them in the transition to becoming sustainable’.

This programme will support homelessness organisations which are at risk of closure, change the way they work so that critical services can continue to help people off the streets. Grants of up to £25,000 over 1 year will be available – this will be a rolling programme.
We will fund things that:

lead to sustainability or test/pilot something to attracts or diversifies funding
build skills and ability to take advantage of new funding or commercial opportunities
build relationships or partnerships which provide access to commercial or commissioning opportunities
leave a lasting legacy

We have listed outcome areas which we would like people to apply against for the small grants programme. Further details are in the help notes for small grants.

Outcome area 1: Increased sustainability

Activities in this area may lead to improved financial planning, diversified funding / income streams, improved ability to identify and capitalise on new commissioning opportunities and reduced costs.

Outcome area 2: Increased adaptability

Activities in this area may lead to increased awareness of opportunities and threats, improved planning for short to long term, increased ability to respond to emerging priorities and opportunities for service development or funding and creative solutions and innovative services.

Outcome area 3: Increased influence and impact

Activities in this area may lead to skilled, strong, ambitious and visionary leadership and staff, improved identification and ability to grow key cross sector relationships, enhanced performance and management of key personnel and appropriate use of voluntary support and improved data management to show the impact and cost savings of services.

Main Grants

The Main Grants Programme aims ‘To support services in the transition to rolling out ‘No Second Night Out’ principles and developing other innovations to end rough sleeping.’

Main Grants Outcomes
For round 2 of the fund we have set four specific annual outcomes we want people to achieve and apply against. These are based on the No Second Night Out principles. Applications should tell us how many people will benefit under each outcome, what you will do to achieve the changes and how you will measure the change that is happening. Further details are in the help notes for main grants.

Outcome 1: No Second Night Out: Improved identification and assessment of new rough sleepers and reduced response times to help people off the streets immediately so that they do not fall into entrenched rough sleeping
Outcome 2: No one should live on the streets: Improved engagement and access for longer term and entrenched rough sleepers to the right accommodation and personalised support at the right time to meet their needs.
Outcome 3: No one should return to the streets once helped: Improved access to longer term flexible support that helps people adapt, stay in accommodation and positively move from the streets into stable independent living and employment.
Outcome 4: No one should arrive on the street: Improved access to preventative services that identify the causes of street homelessness and work with relevant agencies and individuals to intercept and support people at risk of homelessness before they reach the street.

Due to the number of applications we expect to receive, and the limited amount of funding available, it is unlikely we will be able to fund projects from areas that are not experiencing high levels of homelessness and rough sleeping.

If you think your area is experiencing a high level of homelessness and rough sleeping which is not reflected by Government figures, you will have to provide evidence of this in your application. If your project covers several areas, you must demonstrate why your service is needed across all areas and the relationships or flows between the areas for which you wish to apply.

Areas of high homelessness

We are particularly interested in receiving applications from areas that are experiencing high levels of homelessness. We have drawn up a list showing the levels of homelessness in all Local Authority areas using Government data on rough sleeping and statutory homelessness presentations.

Applications from all areas will be accepted however applications from areas of high homelessness will be given extra weighting when we assess them.

We will only fund projects that meet all of the assessment criteria regardless of the area they work in. We will also consider whether an area has received a Round 1 grant from the Homelessness Transition Fund.

Grant deadlines

The Main and Small Grants programmes will open for applications at the beginning of April 2012. The deadline for main grants is 12 noon on Monday 14th May 2012.

There is no deadline for Small Grants as this is a continuous, rolling programme.

Round 3 of Main Grants will open in Autumn 2012

Criteria and guidance

Main grant applications which pass the initial eligibility stage will be assessed according to how well they meet the following criteria:

PROJECT:

Does the project summary address key No Second Night Out criteria (how)?
What do they want to do, how will they do it? Is this a realistic proposal?
Is application from an area of high homelessness?
Are outcomes, relevant and achievable with clear activities and targets?
Is the project needed? What evidence of need is provided? Do they fit with local strategies? Have they looked at ‘fit’ beyond homelessness?
Is it a partnership project? If not, have they looked at other providers to make sure services are not duplicated?
Are monitoring processes adequate?
Do they involve service users in a meaningful and regular way?
What is their track record, have they provided services before? Are they supported by the Local Authority?

FINANCE:

Is project budget reasonable & realistic?
Are staffing levels reasonable & realistic for outcomes?
What is the unit cost? (total no. beneficiaries / project budget)
Do they need funding? Have they suffered cuts?
What is their reserves policy / level – is it more than 6 months running costs?
Are 2010/11 signed accounts on Charity Commission / Companies House website?
Are they solvent? Do they have a deficit that can’t be balanced out from reserves?
Are accounts signed and approved as a ‘true and fair view’?
Any warning signs in annual report / introduction to accounts?

Applicants must provide clear evidence of how they meet these criteria in their completed applications. We will not contact applicants to seek further information.

For detailed guidance and help notes on how to complete the application form please follow the following links: Main Grants and Small Grants

What we don’t fund

We will not fund:

Capital projects
Applications that are more appropriate for the Crisis PRS Access Development Programme http://www.privaterentedsector.org.uk/about-funding.asp
Projects that are looking for an alternative new source of funding for existing work
Services that Local Authorities have a statutory duty to provide
Projects that do not have a clear exit strategy or a focus on becoming sustainable beyond HTF funding

In addition, we will not give out small grants for :

Direct service delivery such as support worker posts (unless this is a pilot intended to lead to greater sustainability).
Academic research
Shortfalls in other funding
Activity that can be funded by another source - e.g Crisis PRS
Something with a short term impact only – funding must leave a longer term ‘legacy’ and lead to greater sustainability of services