Social and Sustainable Housing (SASH), a fund managed by Social and Sustainable Capital (SASC), has completed its latest round of fundraising with the fund now standing at £58 mln (€64 mln).
The latest round, despite fundraising being undertaken throughout the Covid-19 crisis, included increased commitments from CCLA Investment Management, Big Society Capital, Garfield Weston and Tudor Trust, as well as new investment from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Virgin Money Foundation.
SASH - the only fund set up to put ownership of social housing in the hands of frontline charities working to solve the homeless crisis - provides finance to allow high performing social enterprises with a strong track record in the management of social housing to purchase properties. The fund’s target is to provide homes for 10,000 people who are homeless, or at risk of becoming so, alongside attractive, stable, long-term returns for investors generated from the receipt of government paid housing benefit.
The Covid crisis has been a busy period for the frontline charities that SASH invest in and over £38.3 mln of the fund is already earmarked to help vulnerable people find high-quality supported housing.
Ben Rick, managing director of SASC, commented, ‘We see these increased stakes by our existing investors as a real endorsement of our strategy which allows investors to benefit from risk-adjusted commercial returns in an uncertain market through its reliance on property and stable government welfare payments.’
Social and Sustainable Capital (SASC) is a specialist impact investor that has committed in excess of £70 mln to more than 35 organisations across the UK.
SASH launched in May 2019 to provide 10-year loans of between £2 mln and £5 mln to not-for-profit organisations across the UK with experience of managing housing for their disadvantaged clients.
