Hope into Action (HIA) is a national charity that enables investors to buy houses for the homeless. The key to this model is that every house is supported by a local church who provide support and friendship to the tenants such as assistance with paperwork and budgeting skills, eating meals or watching a film together.

Faithworks in Partnership with HIA now have the franchise for this model and are looking to oversee more investment to buy more homes across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.  Faithworks help the churches to support the tenants especially around tenancy management.

We already have the keys to our first home!  We hope to welcome the first tenants just after Easter where they will be supported by a team from Coastline Vineyard Church.  Beth, one of the team leaders, explained:
“My husband Jonty and I are honoured to be team leads for the friendship and support group for the Coastline HIA house. We are so excited to be a part of this movement that is changing lives in such a valuable, radical way… The change this will make to those moving in is incredible and such a wonderful thing to be a part of, giving people value and hope. We cannot wait to see what God does through the team and in their lives.”

Every house is linked with a local church for support as part of the 5 year leasing scheme.  Churches are supported in turn by our HIA Empowerment Worker Jo Thorpe who oversees the leases.  She coordinates the links between the tenants and the church friendship team, helps tenants with their personal goals and ensures the smooth running of the house.  You can hear more from Jo in the podcast below.

David Chidwick, our Homelessness Projects’ Manager, explained: 
“The journey off the streets can be quite long and hard.  There’s more to having a home than just having a room.  In these houses we are hoping that our tenants will feel safe, experience friendship, have a purpose and ideally feel at home.” 

This is clearly a national issue – the Archbishop of Canterbury has recently spoken about a good home being “Safe, Stable, Sustainable, Sociable and Satisfying”.  So, we want to play our part by helping people to move on from temporary accommodation and settle in to a home.  We are doing this alongside a wide programme of support including: StaySafe and bespoke programmes for trainees to develop life and work skills. Some trainees also have placements at our Doorstop Shop, carpentry workshop and gardening team.

We aim to purchase another house in Poole within the next few months – this is an opportunity to invest in a new and innovative way.  We are looking for investors to support this exciting opportunity.  If you or someone you know is interested you can call David Chidwick to discuss this at the office on: 01202 429037.  Alternatively you can find out more online here

 

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