LHF extends support for pan London group working to reduce illegal evictions.

Safer Renting Case Studies

LHF have agreed to continue to fund Southwark based Safer Renting who work across ten London boroughs, supporting people at risk of illegal eviction.

In the last two years they have worked with almost 300 individuals and families, over half of whom were at risk of becoming homeless. More than nine out of ten of this group were either evicted illegally or threatened with an illegal eviction. As a result of Safer Renting’s involvement 26% of those referred were protected from being made homeless, 6% of those secured a local authority homelessness duty and 11 clients received out of court compensation.

They have also published a research project, ‘Journeys In the Shadow Private Rented Sector’, funded by Trust for London and supervised by the Centre for Housing Policy, University of York and singled out by Inside Housing as the most influential housing report of 2020.

Roz Spencer, Head of Service at Safer Renting said:

Illegal evictions are up by almost 40% in London in the last year and the need for training and support amongst enforcement and support professionals of all stripes is greater than ever. As well as working with individuals we have been able to work very closely with the police to help them in their approach to illegal evictions. The support of LHF is not only extremely helpful financially, but shows that the work we are doing has broad support across the sector.

Ian Brady is Executive Chair of LHF. He said:

We are proud to support the work of Safer Renting. People need secure accommodation and to be treated fairly if we are going to reduce the number of homeless people in London. The support, training and research work that Safer Renting do is extremely useful.

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For more information about Safer Renting go to https://ch1889.org/. For more information about LHF and the programmes we run, please go to www.lhf.org.uk

PRESS RELEASE Atlas of Homelessness Services in London – 2021 release now online!