Hope Into Action UK

Hope into Action UK is an award-winning charity enabling the church to house people affected by homelessness. Our story began 13 years ago when our founder, Ed Walker MBE, purchased a house in Peterborough. He used his own savings to house 2 young men leaving prison with nowhere and no one to go to.

Since then, we have encouraged £26m of private investment into housing to be leased to us for people who have been homeless. Every house is opened in partnership with a local church who provide volunteer Friendship and Support teams whom we train. Paid Empowerment Workers focus on the more specialised areas of support work. Ours is a holistic model which has won awards from The Guardian, Centre for Social Justice and Homeless Link.

Again and again, we see that the resource of a safe home together with positive social relationships in the local community helps tenants make good choices, develop a positive identity and helps them address the underlying issues to their homelessness. In 2022/23, we celebrated 93% of our tenants retaining their tenancy and 92% of ex-offenders desisting from reoffending.

Since opening the first home in Peterborough in 2010, rather than grow ourselves, we have reached more people by recruiting franchisees to replicate the model. We believe it is more sustainable and a better use of resources to fund franchisee recruitment, training and support than expand using our own capital. Using this strategy we have been able to open 108 homes housing up to 351 tenants every night in 35 locations mainly across Southern England and the Midlands.

Last year, 412 adults and children benefited from the Hope into Action model - those who had been leaving prison, rough sleeping, fleeing domestic violence, trafficking, leaving the sex trade, sofa surfers, refugees and those seeking to overcome addiction. We welcome people of all faiths and none, all ethnicities and sexualities.