About

This three-year evaluation assessed the Everyone In Social Investment Pilot, which blended public and private capital (£50 million initially, levering a further £138 million) to enable not-for-profit providers to purchase or lease homes for people who had experienced rough sleeping or homelessness. It was led by the Policy Evaluation and Research Unit at Manchester Metropolitan University with partners including the Centre for Homelessness Impact, and combined process tracing, lived experience reporting, and economic analysis.

Findings In Brief

• By March 2025, 528 properties had been procured across England. Targeting was strong: 91 per cent were in areas with the highest homelessness assessment rates, and 83 per cent in areas with the highest rates of temporary accommodation.
  
  
• The pilot was cost-neutral or cost-saving relative to private-rented or temporary accommodation. Stockport Homes saved an estimated 12–22 per cent compared with private rents and over 70 per cent relative to temporary accommodation.
  
  
• Compared with grant programmes, the pilot delivered faster procurement, higher-quality housing, and greater tenancy stability.
  
  
• Clients experienced meaningful improvements in housing stability, safety, and wellbeing. Target Housing's THRIVE and Criminal Justice programmes showed the strongest evidence of improvement, including for tenants with complex needs.
  
  
• The pilot built new hybrid competencies across provider organisations integrating social-care practice with financial literacy, property management, and investor reporting.
  
  
• Fixed lease terms ending in 2030 risk destabilising tenants unless refinancing or rollover mechanisms are secured. In three of the five delivery areas, the model did not provide permanent housing. Distributed procurement at low volume also constrained local scaling.

Recommendations In Brief

• A future pilot should test whether social investment can more consistently deliver permanent housing, building on models that achieved this in the current pilot.
  
  
• Refinancing or rollover mechanisms should be secured ahead of the 2030 lease expiry to prevent a cliff edge for current tenants.
  
  
• The dual landlord–support role placed significant strain on frontline caseworkers. Future models should clarify professional boundaries and ensure adequate workforce capacity.
  
  
• Social investment could be treated as a complementary approach in the toolkit to address homelessness, not a replacement for grant funding or wider housing reform.

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For more information on this study visit MMU Peru.