Who is this session for?
This is the third of our six-part series of communities of practice for people working to support those experiencing homelessness and rough sleeping in rural settings.
What is the focus of this session?
We will be exploring the role of rural housing associations in preventing and responding to homelessness in rural settings.
We will hear from Jess Box, Development Manager at Broadacres Housing Association, a successful, innovative, not-for-profit housing association based in the market town of Northallerton in North Yorkshire. Broadacres currently owns and manages more than 6,000 homes and have stock in Hambleton, Darlington, Richmondshire, Harrogate, Redcar and Cleveland, Ryedale, Scarborough, Selby, the East Riding of Yorkshire, York and Leeds. Jess will talk about some of the challenges particular to being a housing association working successfully in a rural setting, and some of the opportunities, including being an early supporter of the North Yorkshire Rural Housing Enabler programme.
We will also hear from Martin Collet, Chair of English Rural, a specialist housing association working in partnership with rural communities across the South and Southeast of England to understand and tackle the need for more affordable homes. This work frequently brings it into contact with people at risk of or currently facing homelessness, with cases often hidden from wider support networks and homelessness services. It was this challenge that prompted English Rural to bring together a range of housing and rural organisations back in 2022, who collectively lead and funded the innovative research 'Homelessness in the Countryside: A hidden crisis'. This research resulting in the formation of the Rural Homelessness Counts Coalition. A fundamental lesson learnt as part of the research into rural homelessness and subsequent work, is the integral role that housing association like English Rural play in both homelessness prevention, alongside provision of a safe and affordable home. This is something an impact study of rural Housing First in Kent, in partnership with Porchlight and Commonweal Housing is exploring in greater detail.
As always, there will be space during the session for questions and to share ideas on best practice. A summary of the session, including the speaker slides will be shared afterwards.