Hill launches new partnership with leading charities to tackle homelessness
Hill and two leading charities have combined forces to launch a formidable new partnership to help single people experiencing homelessness get their lives back on track.
Following Hill's £12m project to gift 200 specially designed and fully equipped modular homes over the next five years to organisations supporting people experiencing homelessness, The SHC Partnership will create community-led supported accommodation projects.
In the grounds of Westminster Abbey, to mark the launch, SHC Partnership is showcasing SoloHaus, a modular home specially designed by Hill, furnished and ready to move into, which is at the heart of the new campaign to help tackle homelessness.
The homes have running costs of less than £5 a week and are designed to Future Homes Standards, exceeding building regulations for energy efficiency and sound insulation, and with a design life of 60 years.
The Partnership is now calling on the Government, local authorities, and landowners to back its programme, provide funding and help identify small pockets of land as sites for the homes.
The Salvation Army has a presence in 650 communities and currently accommodates a nightly average of four thousand people who were formally homeless. Working with Citizens UK and its network of leaders and volunteers who provide vital support at night shelters and food banks across communities and neighbourhoods, the two organisations offer a formidable combination of skills and expertise, backed by Hill’s provision of the modular homes and the company’s outstanding knowledge and track record in creating new communities.
“Working with The Salvation Army and Citizens UK means that our SoloHaus modular homes can make a real tangible difference to homeless people nationwide and has added amazing firepower to our Foundation 200 programme to gift 200 homes. When the company marked its 20th anniversary in 2019, offering a solution to homelessness was our way of giving something back. We have already donated homes to local charities in Cambridge and other committed projects.”
SHC Partnership has already started work on setting up supported accommodation projects in Southend, Basildon, and Bristol, with opportunities being explored for projects in Harrow, Leicester, Merton, Greater Manchester (Oldham, Openshaw) and Taunton.
The SoloHaus homes are built in Hill’s factory with products developed by its manufacturing and modular homes specialist partner, Volumetric Modular Ltd, and delivered fully furnished. Hill designed the units, with the help of a number of leading homelessness charities, to ensure they meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness who may not have had access to private space for some time. SHC Partnership has already identified large-scale demand for the homes, which goes beyond the £12m Foundation 200 initiative. The homes are in production and available for local authorities and charities to purchase in the quantities they require.
