Homes for Cathy
Homes for Cathy is a national alliance of housing associations, charities and local authorities working together to end homelessness.
Homes for Cathy was formed in 2016 to mark 50 years since the release of Ken Loach’s Cathy Come Home. We wanted to show that homelessness is still a significant and prevalent issue, and that the messages in Cathy Come Home are still relevant today. So we got together to raise awareness of homelessness and to work on strategies to end homelessness once and for all.
These nine commitments, created alongside Crisis’ Plan to End Homelessness, are for all housing associations to work towards. At South Yorkshire Housing Association, we work with our board to score ourselves on how well we’re meeting these commitments, how we can work towards meeting them all, and to continually monitor our progress.
- To contribute to the development and execution of local authority homelessness strategies
- To operate flexible allocations and eligibility polices which allow individual applicants’ unique sets of circumstances and housing histories to be considered
- To offer constructive solutions to applicants who aren’t deemed eligible for an offer of a home
- To not make homeless any tenant seeking to prevent their homelessness (as defined in the Crisis plan)
- To commit to meeting the needs of vulnerable tenant groups
- To work in partnership to provide a range of affordable housing options which meet the needs of all homeless people in their local communities
- To ensure that properties offered to homeless people are ready to move into
- To contribute to ending migrant homelessness in the areas housing associations operate
- To lobby, challenge and inspire others to support ending homelessness
