Investment helps to expand our housing services

The SASH loan will allow us to purchase 26 properties across four or more regions in the UK to grow our overall business. This will increase our owned property portfolio by more than 40 percent.

We already have three new projects underway in Stockport, Birkenhead and Cambridge.

This is the first time we have used social investment. The SASH loan will give us complete ownership and control over the properties we buy, which means we can ensure continuity of tenure and more stability for our long-term residents.

We have been operating since 1982 and have supported more than 200,000 people across England. We employ over 1000 people and nearly 400 olunteers to deliver our vital services to the people we support.

Rachel Peacock, CEO, says: “At Making Space, we fundamentally believe that the people we support should have a place to call home, and that without somewhere safe and decent to live, we can never achieve our vision of putting wellbeing at the heart of health and social care. As part of our strategic objective to deliver care for the future, we identified a need to explore more agile ways of meeting people’s housing needs.

“We are delighted and extremely thankful to SASC for awarding GBP5 million to support us in achieving our goals. This funding will give us the ability to be more responsive to providing personalised housing solutions for people with learning disabilities and mental health conditions, in areas where unmet needs have been identified.

“We will continue to support all our beneficiaries through our other housing routes including working with developers to build much needed supported housing accommodation and with registered social landlords as their care provider.”

Ben Rick, Managing Director, SASC says: “We’re delighted to invest in Making Space which will enable them to provide housing for more vulnerable people. This charity has helped many people with care and support needs lead independent and fulfilling lives, and has won awards and commendations for their work."

This is SASC’s seventh investment from the SASH fund, which has so far deployed over GBP38 million since launching in May 2019. SASH was co-designed with borrower charities whose work with vulnerable people was being hampered through lack of access to safe, stable and appropriate homes.