Rochdale homelessness scheme wins national award

The Bond Board, a scheme that helps homeless people find a place to call home, has been crowned a Private Renting Champion by Crisis, the national charity for single homeless people.

The scheme has helped 7,000 households find and keep private rented housing over the last 20 years in Greater Manchester, and is supported by Crisis which runs a national advisory service for organisations that help single homeless people find and keep a private rented home.

This work was supported by Department of Communities and Local Government with start-up funding over three years of £11m.

Leslie Morphy, chief executive of Crisis, said: “Homeless people really struggle to overcome so many hurdles when trying to find a decent place to call home. The work of schemes like The Bond Board is crucial. Crisis is really pleased to acknowledge their efforts through this Champions award.”

Andrew Beeput, chief officer at The Bond Board, said: “To be nominated as a Private Renting Champion by Crisis is a huge honour, both with regards to what we have achieved and also to showcase our services as we continue to meet client needs in an ever-changing housing market.”

Nine additional schemes were selected as Crisis Private Renting Champions, following the first four announced in March 2013. They will give guidance to other projects on tackling the everyday problems which arise from housing homeless people in the private rented sector, to help create high quality and lasting tenancies.

Each scheme is a champion for a year, during which time Crisis will invite other projects to apply to be champions too, by highlighting their own solutions to common challenges in the sector.