Homelessness membership charity launches £4.5m social investment fund

Homeless Link, the national membership charity for homelessness and supported housing agencies, is launching a £4.5m social investment fund.

The fund is open to charities and social enterprises across England working to reduce homelessness.

Homeless Link will invest the money over the next three years, offering homelessness organisations unsecured loans of amounts between £25,000 and £150,000.

The fund aims to test and learn where social investment can be most effectively used alongside other forms of funding.

It is looking to support organisations to increase the homelessness sector’s knowledge and experience of social investment, develop new models for income generation and funding, and improve organisations' long-term sustainability.

The programme is funded by Access - The Foundation for Social Investment, through its Growth Fund.

Homeless Link's director of strategy and innovation Mark McPherson said it is hoped the investments will unlock innovative ways of working with people experiencing homelessness, and help to put the recipient organisations on a sustainable footing.

The programme will also help feed in to the bigger picture of how different funding mechanisms can work for homelessness services.

“Social investment is increasingly being explored and used in the non-profit sector, offering a balance of accountability for results, and flexibility around use and repayment,” McPherson said. “Homeless Link intends to lead the way in understanding the role of social investment in our sector so that we can continue to support our members’ development.”

Access Foundation chief executive Seb Elsworth said the new fund is a step forward in making social investment more accessible and relevant to charities and social enterprises seeking to tackle homelessness.

“It is also a great step forward for a membership body in the sector to play such an innovative role in connecting their members to capital and helping them develop new operating models,” Elsworth said. “We look forward to working with more infrastructure bodies to help grow social investment in other parts of the charity and social enterprise sector too.”

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