In 2016 Crisis committed funding for two years to projects which focused on supporting social landlords to set up shared tenancies in social housing.

The funding commenced when the Government was still pushing ahead with its plans to apply the local housing allowance (LHA) caps to the social sector, which would have meant any social housing tenants under 35 (not eligible for any exemptions) would have only been eligible for the shared accommodation rate, and would have been likely to face a considerable shortfall if they were to stay in their existing self-contained accommodation. 

For this reason, many housing associations (and some local authorities) have been trialling or setting up shared tenancies in their own stock and our Help to Rent funding aimed to support these pilots and learn from their experiences.   

Since the announcement in October 2017 that the LHA caps would no longer apply to the social sector, there has been less need to set up sharing pilots, although it is clear that sharing can still be a positive housing option for some people. This summary report shares best practice and learning from the funded projects