035 Housing First, Women experiencing homelessness and advice for landlords with Sarah Walters

In this episode Sarah Walters talks about the Housing First model for housing people with more complex needs who have been homeless and talks about women who are homeless and their needs, she also has some great advice and resources for landlords looking to let their properties to people who have been homeless.  Sarah works for Crisis, a large national homelessness charity, within the Best Practice Team. Crisis work directly with thousands of homeless people every year, providing vital help so that people can rebuild their lives and are supported out of homelessness. We also campaign for changes to end homelessness for good.  The Best Practice team look to identify, test and promote new solutions and approaches to ending homelessness across the UK, working with our own services, other charities, local authorities and in partnerships with particular cities to do this. Sarah has worked in the homelessness charity sector for 18 years, both frontline - through providing housing and homelessness advice under Legal Aid and managing an advice centre,  and in development - working with a Programme which helped those who faced the most  complex  disadvantages.   She recently led on several grant programmes for Crisis which funded over 200 charities, meeting direct needs as a result of Covid, and promoting the increase of housing solutions for those experiencing homelessness across tenures and support models.  Sarah has a particular interest in women’s homelessness having been awarded a Fellowship with the  Winston Churchill Memorial Trust which enabled me to  travel and  understand how this area was approached in the US and Canada. https://hfe.homeless.org.uk/ https://www.crisis.org.uk/ending-homelessness/resources-for-practitioners/ https://www.wcmt.org.uk/fellows/reports/no-place-home-transatlantic-approaches-helping-homeless-women#downloads   Lisa Brown became a property investor after a long nursing career. She initially developed heritage properties and then a chance encounter led her to discover supported living. She realized this was a powerful way to invest in property while creating homes for people with a support need. Lisa set about discovering why property investors struggle to let their properties to supported living providers and why providers struggle to find property to let. She has been educating people, raising awareness and working on solutions to this problem ever since. Lisa is the host of the Supported Living Property Podcast and YouTube channel and formed The Supported Living Property Facebook Group.    Lisa is founder of The Supported Living Property Network, a place for property investors and supported living providers to connect, build relationships and communicate about property they have available and/or need. Membership includes access to training courses, monthly training events and networking events and access to The Supported Living Property Network Conference. To find out how you can join The Supported Living Property Network please follow this link: ⁠https://www.supportedlivingproperty.uk/the-supported-living-property-network⁠ Lisa has written a free guide for you: If you are a property investor download this free guide to help you find providers to lease your property: ⁠https://www.supportedlivingproperty.uk/free-guide-for-property-investors⁠   If you are a provider who is looking for property to lease then download this free guide to help you find property: ⁠https://www.supportedlivingproperty.uk/free-guide-for-providers⁠  These interviews are also available as podcasts from your usual podcast provider, just search for The Supported Living Property Podcast. Please make sure you click the "subscribe" button so you don't miss an episode.