As Andrews Property Group CEO David Westgate explains, the project is in line with founder Cecil Jackson Cole’s community focussed approach. The late entrepreneur and humanitarian was also behind Age UK precursor Help the Aged, Oxfam and Action Aid.
“We have a very strong corporate responsibility message and it is an important challenge for us to ensure that our staff and customers are invested in the social purpose for which we are here. We are starting to get that message across,” he said.
“My dream is not just to house people but to also have them come and work for us as well. We are two years in to this project and we have already had a young person come work for us and didn’t work out unfortunately and they left in under six months. But we were able to give him constructive feedback about how he can grow and develop and he wasn’t going to lose his home.
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“The initial objective was to have 50 properties refurbished in 50 years. But we are now challenging that ourselves and there is no reason why we can’t aim higher to build 500 or 5,000 instead.”
According to National Audit Office figures, one third of care leavers became homeless within the first two years of leaving care and 25 per cent of homeless people have been in care at some point in their lives.
That is why there has been a concerted effort by Andrews and others to tackle the problem. MyBnk’s The Money House aims to provide tangible financial education to stop vulnerable youngsters from slipping into rent arrears and other debt issues while the Care Leaver Covenant was launched in October to improve job prospects.
The two homes Andrews have purchased so far have helped youngsters like Kieren Sage, 19, who came out of foster care to move into one of the flats in March.
Since then, he has been receiving support from CAYSH to help him with job applications to start a career as a landscape gardener.
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He said: “It can be really hard for someone in my position to develop the personal skills that you need to get on in life but I moved to my foster family two years ago and I didn’t learn anything about benefits or other things I needed to know about like cooking and going to job interviews.
“But moving in here has given me the chance to learn those skills and improve my chances in life.”
Sian Edwards, executive director at Andrews Charitable Trust, added: “We’re a charity with a mission to alleviate poverty and homelessness and with most of our funding coming from Andrews Property Group, it makes sense that we tackle this from a housing perspective.”
Images: Andrews Property Group
