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One of the many amazing charity partners we work with is Giroscope in Hull. As it is Empty Homes Week this week, we thought it would be a great opportunity to highlight the work Giroscope do in buying and renovating empty homes. Not only do they make the properties into usable accommodation, they also encourage volunteers and prospective tenants to help in the renovation project, giving them a greater sense of ownership of the property.
It is unacceptable that 86,000 young people will experience homelessness this year. Tragically, that truth is matched by another bizarre, shocking statistic. According to the government, there are 205,000 long-term empty homes ('long-term' means over six months) in England alone. This week is national Empty Homes Week.
It is a startling fact that young people in the UK are three times more likely to experience homelessness than the rest of the population, and are disproportionally impacted by job insecurity and poverty. A recent study found that one in 13 people aged between 16 and 25 in the UK have experienced some form of homelessness within the last five years.
Since joining Action on Empty Homes as Director in August, I have had my sights firmly fixed on delivering Empty Homes Week. We organise Empty Homes Week to give local authorities the chance to celebrate successes and reflect on what more needs to be done to bring empty properties back into use. It also gives a focus for national and local media to report on the issue, and this in turn pushes empty homes up the policymaking agenda.
Since joining LandAid earlier this month, I'd been looking forward to my first visit to a project we're helping to fund. I couldn't wait to see the concrete impact LandAid's grants were having on young people's lives. I'm not sure I could have attended a better first visit than XLP in Greenwich.
We're delighted that many of these projects will be funded by the RICS Pledge150 campaign. In total these projects will create 161 bedspaces, of which 60 will be directly funded by Pledge150.
Transactional giving is an exciting new way for your company to partner with LandAid to help end youth homelessness. This month, LandAid confirmed two new Foundation Partners, who are also our first partners to support LandAid through transactional giving: NestEast and VU, cITY. How does transactional giving work? Well, the beauty of transactional giving is that it can be adapted to suit your business model. But simply put, it means that each time your company makes a particular business transaction, it also makes an agreed donation to LandAid.
Over 80 senior property professionals from across the South West gathered together this morning to form LandAid, the property industry charity, South West Fundraising Board.
RICS's Pledge150 campaign aims to raise enough money to create 150 bed spaces for young homeless people around the UK. Erin Peart, Board Member for RICS North East, recently visited one of the LandAid projects that the campaign will fund: SHAID (Single Homelessness Action in Durham).
