Women experiencing homelessness is a real, yet often underreported, issue within the UK: 60% of all homeless adults in temporary accommodation in England are women. This is what the Women in Safe Homes fund, believed to be the world’s first gender-lens property fund, is working hard to tackle. The fund works with expert housing partners and women’s sector organisations to provide safe, stable housing for women and children who need it. So far, the fund is proud to have housed over 450 women and children, all of whom had been facing housing crisis, one of these women is Melinda*, who is housed and supported by Refuge.
Melinda explains, in her words, her journey: “I grew up in Ecuador, and moved to Spain as a teenager. I then moved to London and separated from the father of my children. I did a teaching assistant course to work with children with special needs, and I was working part- time in a school.”
Like the 97% of women housed who agreed they felt safe living in their home, Melinda feels that her and her children are now secure and safe. “This home has helped me keep myself and my children safe, which is my main priority in life,” says Melinda. “The home is brand new and has everything any person could need. I was happy when I moved in. I couldn’t believe how lucky we had been. This place has provided me with a safe space to move on from a terrible experience.”
Expert housing partner Refuge is working with the fund to purchase properties, before fully furnishing them and making them homely to help provide a trauma-informed environment that can help people through their support. “The support provided by Refuge has been outstanding,” says Melinda. “I have felt completely safe and supported from the beginning, and I continue to receive this support every day. The support has not only been practical but also emotional throughout this tough time in my life.”
Amy Davies, Project Manager at Refuge, says, “It’s been an incredible journey for us, around being able to have quite a bit of say as to what those properties look like, where they’re going to be, making the Women in Safe Homes fund ideal for our project.” So far, sixteen dispersed properties have been purchased for Refuge, twelve have been handed over to the charity, and ten have already provided safe and stable housing for twenty women and thirty-one children.
Now, Melinda can make a plan for the future, through access to a safe and secure home. “If I had not come here, I am not sure what I would have done,” she says. “I would maybe have had to move in with family or friends, and it would have taken me a long time to again find a place just for me and my children. Having a stable home for me has to do with maintaining my independence whilst being safe and being able to provide for my children. This home has helped me with doing all of this.”
About the Women in Safe Homes fund
The Women in Safe Homes fund is a gender-lens impact investment property fund helping address the housing crisis for women escaping domestic abuse, leaving the criminal justice system without a home to go to and at risk of or experiencing homelessness. It was launched in December 2020 as a joint venture of Resonance and Patron Capital because there is a chronic shortage of safe, decent and affordable housing for women at risk of and experiencing homelessness.
In 2024, 1.6 million women in the UK experienced domestic abuse, one of the leading causes of women’s homelessness.
The fund raised £29m from over twenty impact investors and has now closed, focusing on deployment, and has so far purchased 111 properties for its eight housing partners. So far, over 450 women and children have been housed by the fund.
