There are too many homeless families and too many homes without families. Homes4All is a fair housing model based on innovative impact finance that creates an ecosystem in which needy families find decent and accessible homes and investors make ethical and profitable investments. The project plans to quickly put the huge non-performing real estate assets back into circulation, realizing comfortable, beautiful, and energy-efficient housing in order to trigger a process of urban regeneration.
National
Italy
Torino, Genova, Milano
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
2022-10-01
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Homes4All s.r.l. Società Benefit Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Mario Last name of representative: Montalcini Gender: Male Nationality: Italy Function: CEO Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Via Beato Sebastiano Valfrè, 16 Town: Torino Postal code: 10121 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 347 497 1188 E-mail:info@homes4all.it Website:https://homes4all.it
Homes4All is a social housing project born in Turin based on impact finance. It consists of a model to face the housing emergency and promote urban regeneration. It equips cities with preventive tools by intervening in the reduction of waiting times for public housing. In fact, it is currently estimated that about 2 years pass before families in a housing emergency can access the house and this time is mostly spent in temporary accommodation at the expense of the administrations.
Homes4All intends to expand the private real estate offer at affordable costs, thus generating savings compared to a different, more expensive, take charge for the municipalities. This model is made possible thanks to the capacity of private partners to mobilize vacant real estate assets: in fact, there are over 50,000 empty apartments in the Municipality of Turin and, conversely, 20.2% of families live in overcrowded conditions. Homes4All, therefore, intends to put the huge unused real estate assets back into circulation helping families in a housing emergency and at the same time generating value for the investors and for the whole community. The aim is to enable social innovation processes to give a more effective response to the needs of citizens and a more efficient one to the allocation and use of public resources. Homes4All has been also recognized by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers as a good practice of Social Innovation.
Homes4All intervenes directly on the territory carrying out urban and social regeneration. It also implements the tenants' accompaniment by a personalized project jointly conceived by the social services and the beneficiaries themself. The path provides an assisting period of 18 months from the start of the lease through coordination meetings with social services, support for finding a job, promotions of financial education workshops and finally promoting empowerment thus decreasing the risk that people should again be dragged into difficult situations
Social housing
Impact investing
Urban regeneration
Empowerment
Sustainability
Social sustainability:
the objective is to guarantee the inclusion of the beneficiaries in society. In fact, as highlighted by the scientific literature, poor housing quality, overcrowding, and temporary accommodation can negatively impact people's health and well-being, also on the level of education and the probability of crime.
Facing critical housing situations generates an effective positive impact not only for the beneficiaries involved but for the whole community. To this end, Homes4All proposes an innovative social support system, based on the actual needs of the people involved, carried out through coordination with social services.
In 2022 Homes4All also gained the B Corp label to certify the social sustainability of the enterprise.
Economic sustainability:
the goal is to provide affordable housing while generating savings for the public administration. This is possible thanks to the impact investing model and the tool “Pay by result”, according to which a result bonus is paid to the private provider to increase operating margins, making possible the continuous improvement of the service.
In fact, the City of Turin spends an average of 1.000 euros per month per family for about 2 years: in fact, this is the medium time to provide public housing that needy families spend in hotels. Thanks to Homes4All it is possible to generate savings in public spending of 50% to 80% compared to the scenario described above, also giving housing stability to the families involved.
Homes4All activity also contributes to promoting urban regeneration and reducing the impact on the city's social services, freeing up new public housing for those who need it.
Environmental sustainability:
in this case, the goal is to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings and the creation of energy communities. This is achieved through the right energy efficiency and construction measures through which our buildings are renovated.
The goal is to provide the beneficiaries with comfortable, adequate, and accessible housing, paying attention also to the general redevelopment of the buildings, often obsolescent and dilapidated, located in peripheral areas of the city and, to the benefit of the whole community.
To achieve this goal, Homes4All carefully evaluates the various needs of the families involved and specifically the number of components and their age to avoid situations of overcrowding - which is all too common in the Italian context - and implements quick personalized renovations.
Homes4All has also made a particular effort to promote in the tenants the sense of belonging to a community. A specific example is that of the property located in Borgata Tesso, one of the historic villages of Turin which, despite its lively past, has experienced a state of neglect for many years. The building is spread over four levels plus a basement with cellars and counts 16 apartments plus 2 commercial units, a laboratory, a warehouse, and 7 garages. The building develops around a large courtyard which becomes, together with the balconies, a space for socializing aimed at intensifying the sense of community.
The building acquired in part already leased, in addition to being in precarious maintenance conditions, presented some social tensions inside. The regeneration project, therefore, did not have the only objective of renovating the building, but of developing a real social housing project based on quality living spaces and a collaborative community of inhabitants.
Thanks to the partnership with the Municipality of Turin, Homes4All is able to ensure property owners who decide to participate in the project with insurance against the risk of arrears through a special guarantee fund which covers, against an executive eviction sentence, up to a maximum of 12 months' rent and a one-off economic incentive ranging from €1,500 to €3,000 depending on the duration of the contract. At the same time, it has provided for the disbursement of non-repayable contributions, in favor of the tenants, of an amount corresponding to six or eight months of the agreed rent. Through these incentives, the project has allowed needy people to access controlled rents so as to be able to have a decent home without waiting for time to obtain public housing.
Another activity carried out within the Homes4All project, in favor of families who risk losing their homes due to debt situations, is the management of over-indebtedness practices. This activity consists in assisting the beneficiary tenants with the management and overcoming any debt situations. Therefore, once the necessary capital has been found to reach the settlement agreement, the families have, on the one hand, the possibility of continuing to live in the house whose beneficial ownership consequently passes to the private partner (Homes4All S.R.L.) through the payment of a controlled rent, on the other the option to buy back one's home with a form of Rent To Buy and therefore no longer tied to the previous initial debt. In this way, the project makes it possible to safeguard the right to housing, thus supporting families to overcome an immediate critical situation and at the same time building the conditions for the beneficiaries to be able to implement an effective restart process.
A peculiar activity of the project is certainly the beneficiaries' social accompaniment. It starts by customizing the dwelling design according to the tenants' needs and it goes on to define a specific empowerment project. This one takes into account the resources and needs to conceive the goals that should be achieved. Social support interventions such as searching for job training, economic lessons, and follow-up and monitoring meetings are also implemented.
The accompaniment path is aimed at identifying with the families the needs to be answered and the critical issues to be overcome. It also defines which are the achievable goals on the base of the activable resources.
The ultimate goal of the accompanying intervention is to interrupt the spiral of chronicity, thus avoiding the situation worsen by supporting families in the moment of fragility and working jointly to achieve full self-determination. This is possible by strengthening the existing resources and skills through the identification of new and suitable empowerment tools.
To monitor the effectiveness of the actions provided, Homes4All has also conceived particular measurement tools for the generated impact.
Homes4All is an impact financing model which is based on a network of private investors that share the benefits aim of the project and choose to participate in the risk Capital of the society Home4All S.R.L. Among the big Italian bodies that choose of contributing, we point out the Ufficio Pio of Compagnia di San Paolo which supports people and families in situations of vulnerability or social and economic hardship within the Piedmont region, and Sefea Impact SGR S.p.A. which is a leading asset management company in social and environmental impact investments which has seen in Homes4All the opportunity to generate positive changes in the conditions of the well-being of communities together with a fair economic return. Nearly 140 are currently private investors who have decided to participate also through Equity Crowdfunding instruments.
Among the stakeholders effectively involved, we should also mention all the private owners who have given their real estate properties under management to Homes4All.
Among the stakeholders, we can include the territorial public offices, also identified by the City Administration as essential to make the assistance paths as flexible as possible for citizens in a critical housing situation.
To complete the network it’s necessary to insert a focus on the relational richness constituted by the numerous civic initiatives that animate territories where Homes4All social housing rises.
The last essential relationship is the one with Public Administration, the collaborates in promoting the project, provides the payment of bonuses through the Pay by result tool, and coordinates itself with the Homes4All for the implementation of all the activities and strategies.
The result of all these engaged stakeholders is both a spontaneous impulse capable of leading the community to organize itself to respond to common needs, as well as valuable synergies between the Public Administration and numerous private players.
The project envisages the collaboration of actors specialized in various sectors such as
Urban regeneration (Homers S.R.L.)
Promotion of the culture of active citizenship (Acmos Aps)
Development of projects with high social impact (Brainscapital S.R.L)
Property management (Homes4All S.R.L.)
Social accompaniment (Coop Na.Na.)
The partnership between these multiskilled enterprises has made it possible to set up a multidisciplinary and multisectoral project. The starting point is always the identification of vacant properties, mainly in peripheral and degraded areas of the city, that are renovated in order to make beautiful, comfortable, and energy-efficient homes. The durability of the project is ensured by personalized accompaniment projects which provides also the tools for home maintenance, besides tenants’ empowerment tools.
In order to measure the outcomes that should be generated by the project, the following three main long-term indicators were therefore identified:
housing stability intended both for those families who have access to a new home and for families who, thanks to the support for over-indebtedness, are able to keep their home;
increased accessibility in economic terms thanks to subsidized fees and reduction of waiting times for public housing;
improvement of personal and family well-being and empowerment.
To date, the Homes4All project boasts 28 properties acquired by the company Homes4All S.R.L and 19 under management; it has involved more than 130 private investors through which 2.6 million euros of capital have been raised in two rounds of financing. This made it possible to give a comfortable home at affordable prices to 70 beneficiaries, all included in social accompaniment programs.
A family was also able to keep its home which had been auctioned off due to a particular debt situation and which was purchased by Homes4All S.R.L. After that, an agreement on a new subsidized rental contract with the nucleus occurred.
During its activity, the project has also received the prestigious Sustainable Enterprise Award promoted by Il Sole 24 Ore, the best-known Italian business newspaper, in collaboration with the Pontifical Academy for Life.
Homes4All S.R.L. also became a BCorp-certified company in May 2022, adopting an external assessment standard: Benefit Impact Assessment, which helps companies assess their impact on various stakeholders, including their workers, the community, customers, and the environment.
The "Community" impact area, one of the areas that make up the evaluation process, evaluates how the company can contribute to the economic and social well-being of the communities in which it operates and is therefore pertinent to the area of "Social Sustainability". Homes4All achieved a score of 31.2 in this area, with a country average of 16.5.
The innovative elements characterizing the initiative belong to two categories: the creation of a virtuous social ecosystem for the tenants and the proposal of win-win practices with a strong socio-economic impact, directed by the private sector toward the public one. The project in fact starts with the engagement of private investors who are involved in social initiatives with a fair economic return.
One of the other strong points of the initiative is the support provided by professional figures (social animators; educators; activators of territorial networks; social workers) expressly dedicated to the reconstruction of the tenant's social asset; through strategies, measurable and evaluable, built on the peculiarity of each beneficiary, these figures work in the promotion of good practices, starting from the sphere of the so-called "Good Neighborhood". The attention of the operators is first of all directed to the re-creation of a woven relationship between neighbors, by rebuilding a worn bond or, often, creating it from scratch, and secondly to the involvement of the social bodies operating in the area.
The second aspect of innovation concerns the creation of a private-public axis which sees a clear involvement of the first. In the relationship with the public sector, Homes4All aims to overcome the mere welfare dimension, which too often turns out to be the point of collapse of this kind of initiative, building an action that moves its steps starting from a strong investment, personal and economic, of the bodies involved. Private social actors, credit institutions, local bodies, and social enterprises are put into a system to generate a positive impact.
Homes4All's action starts from the analysis of the real estate market and the consequent mapping of empty houses, at the end of which the properties suitable for hosting social housing are evaluated and selected.
The renovation and bringing up to standard works are then coordinated by Homes4All architects, with particular attention to energy efficiency interventions and to the creation of energy communities.
Once the correct execution of the works has been verified, the spaces and interior furnishings are designed according to the family that will be hosted in the home.
Homes4All then supports the family during the insertion into the house and provides the so-called housing manual as a guide to the house and mutual attestation of its state.
The company, therefore, accompanies and monitors the beneficiaries with a personalized project; they have to sign a social accompaniment agreement so that Homes4All can design a plan of action useful for achieving the empowerment goals. The results are constantly monitored in order to be able to effectively measure the outcomes and the impacts generated.
The scalability of the project lies in the constitutive system of relationships. The project was born in fact with the intention of being replicable in different territories and contexts.
To this end, effective evaluative indicators are adopted, and they serve to generate and aggregate useful project action analysis data. Since the indicators have provided positive results, it is possible to think of experimenting with the initiative on other territories, in agreement with the public and private stakeholders involved.
The strength of planning lies in the ability to create a system of good institutional and territorial relations: therefore, this is the first step in the search for new territories in which to experiment.
Through effective dissemination of the results obtained, the project aims to involve more and more stakeholders and institutions within a systemic dynamic that should solve the housing emergency. In this way, Homes4All can over time become a characterizing factor in Turin's experience as a "social city", capable of generating debate and attracting attention from different areas of the country. Each actor engaged should work in order to build a winning model, in order to experiment with the project in other countries, taking the Turin experience as a virtuous model.
Homes4All contributes to the achievement of 8 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): having a decent and affordable home is a determining factor for the health and well-being of individuals and families (SDG 11 and 3) and has a positive impact on the education of children, (SDG 4) can help people get and stay in employment (SDG 8) and can provide a way out of poverty (SDG 1). The carbon footprint of homes can be reduced through the right energy efficiency and building measures (SDGs 7 and 13). Sustainability requires everyone's efforts to strengthen the means of implementation and renew the partnership for sustainable development and to encourage and promote effective partnerships in the public sector, public-private, and civil society by building on the experience of partnerships and their capacity to find resources. (SDG 17).
In this way, Homes4All is an inclusive and sustainable model not only for inhabiting but also for regenerating our cities. According to a collaborative approach, the project responds in this way at the same time to local needs but also to global challenges highlighted by various EU initiatives such as the Green New Deal and the ONU Agenda 2030.
