Starts at Home Day 2018 will take place on Friday 31 August 2018 and it is critical we continue to keep supported housing high on the political agenda.

You’ll recall that last year, the sector was facing the prospect of the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) cap being applied to supported housing, which would have made it more difficult to build much needed new supported housing schemes and risked the closure of critically important existing schemes.

But by coming together through Starts at Home to demonstrate the value of supported housing and by calling for funding certainty, the sector was able to persuade the Government to think again and in October 2017 plans to introduce the LHA cap were scrapped.

This year, we’re encouraging you to continue to celebrate the impact of supported housing on thousands of people’s lives by sharing positive stories on social media and by inviting your local MPs to visit your schemes to see it for themselves.

How you can do to get involved

  • Last year, 36 MPs visited supported housing schemes where they could see first-hand the tremendous impact supported housing has on people’s lives. With your help, we think we can beat this number this year. Invite your local MPs and stakeholders to visit your supported housing schemes – find out more.
  • Submit a case study for our Stories page – find out more.
  • Download the Starts at Home graphics to demonstrate support on social media – find out more.
  • Register your interest in the campaign by signing up for email updates (at the bottom of this page) – find out more.

Last year’s campaign made a big impact on social media, with #startsathome trending nationwide on Twitter. We want to replicate that success so don’t forget to include the #startsathome hashtag when you share your stories and photos on Twitter and Instagram.

We’ve also prepared a template press release and policy briefing to get you up to speed on the recent positive announcement that supported housing stay funded through the benefit system.

Thank you for your support – together we’ll make Starts at Home Day 2018 on Friday 31 August 2018 another huge success.

Blog by Ella Cheney, Campaigns Officer at the National Housing Federation.