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Pension fund invests £30m with homelessness-focused social impact investor
Gloucestershire Pension Fund has invested £30m in a social impact investor’s property fund that is focused on homelessness.
The cash will go into Resonance’s National Homelessness Property Fund 2 (NHPF2), where a total of £20m from the NHPF2 will be used to buy and refurbish around 90 homes in Gloucestershire.
This will “house individuals and families who are currently living in unsuitable temporary accommodation”, Resonance said.
The property fund will then lease the homes to Developing Health and Independence (DHI), a social inclusion charity that helps people overcome barriers to independence such as poor housing and homelessness.
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Resonance said the investment could potentially provide homes for 750 individuals and families over the fund’s lifetime.
Rosie Phillips, chief executive at DHI, said: “As a social inclusion charity, the provision of safe affordable housing is of paramount importance.
“Housing is the single biggest cost pressure on struggling individuals and families and lack of affordable housing causes stress, inequality and poor health.”
She added that the partnership with Resonance “aligns with our approach of helping people to achieve their potential from the foundations up, while improving health and well-being and reducing inequalities and disadvantage in communities”.
Chris Cullen, head of homelessness property funds at Resonance, said: “There are over 117,000 households living in temporary accommodation across England, including over 130,000 dependent children, and this number continues to rise.
“We are very grateful for Gloucestershire Pension Fund’s place-based investment into NHPF2, which illustrates the difference that local government pension funds can make to the area in which their members live.”
Official figures revealed in November last year that the number of children living in temporary accommodation had risen by more than 20,000 in the past year.
As of March 2024, there were 315 households in temporary accommodation across Gloucestershire, including nearly 200 in Gloucester.
NHPF2 was launched in 2020 and operates across England. To date it has raised around £129m and purchased more than 350 homes, housing almost 500 tenants.
Other institutional investors in the fund include Greater Manchester Pension Fund and several local authorities. The fund aims to purchase family and one-bedroom homes across the UK.
The homelessness property fund model has come under fire after Home REIT, an investment trust that specialises in accommodation for people experiencing homelessness, has faced months of mounting debts and legal action.
The government announced at the end of 2024 that councils in England will receive nearly £1bn in new funding next year to address and prevent homelessness.
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