1. Home Turf Lettings
www.hometurflettings.co.uk
There are hundreds of homeless people in and around Bristol, who would make good,
reliable tenants, but they can’t find housing because landlords won’t rent to you if you’re
homeless, don’t have a track record, or are unemployed.
This means that they are trapped in a cycle of homelessness or unsuitable housing.
Home Turf Lettings is a social enterprise that acts as a safety net. We make it much easier
and safer for landlords to let their properties to people in need, thereby helping vulnerable
people to find and keep a home. We want people to be proud of where they live, feel safe
and have a base from which they can get their lives back on track again.
It’s very early days for Home Turf – we officially launched in April, and have so far housed 9
homeless clients. A charitable grant got us started but we are a social enterprise and need
to build a sustainable business model (through management fees and rental income) if we
are to survive.
We’ll work however our landlords want – from simple tenant-introduction, to rent
collection and full property management services. In suitable cases, we will even lease the
property ourselves – guaranteeing the rent and giving the landlord a reliable assurance that
the property will be handed back in the same condition we took it on in (fair wear and tear
excepted). We see this as our ‘unique offering’, as it means we take away all the hassle and
risk – the landlord does nothing except plan how to spend their guaranteed monthly rental
payment.
1: Our BIG challenge:
We need to identify, engage and sign up landlords and properties
Home Turf will live or die by our ability to attract landlords, which is where Good for
Nothing comes in...
2: Our communication challenge
We need to better communicate who we are and what we do through:
a) A website, online presence and social media through which we can engage people,
network, channel enquiries and grow our database; and
b) Refining our messaging / branding and marketing materials

2. You will see our current website is just a holding page – we need to engage people and grow
our database of landlords. A couple of ideas we’ve had include a target and moving scale on
our website for how many people we’ve housed through the year, and case studies and/or
‘headline’ facts to show what it really means to help people in this kind of situation. Some
other outputs could be copy, images and other media telling the Home Turf story, or a
template for a regular newsletter.
3: Our marketing challenge
Input on our marketing strategy, to produce a realistic action plan for us to move forward
We have a marketing plan but could definitely do with some creative thought. Our business
totally depends on reaching landlords and building strong relationships with them – who has
bright ideas about how best to reach 'our' kind of landlord, or how we can stand out from
the crowd of agencies fighting for their business?
4: Our challenge for getting partners
Identify (and maybe contact!?) potential partners and organisations we could collaborate
with both to find more housing and to improve the experience for our tenants
This could be a ‘hitlist’ of people/organisations, commercial tie-ups and brand partnerships
which we may be able to work with, particularly those that can link us with landlords, or
maybe those who could help individuals settle into a new home, get a job or increase their
security. These organisations could perhaps give in-kind support in return for kudos, for
example home insurers, utility companies, DIY stores...the sky’s the limit really.
There is more….
Home Turf was set up by DHI (Developing Health & Independence), a local charity that
supports people who are socially excluded for reasons such as homelessness, alcohol or
drug addiction, mental health problems or learning disabilities. We have a sister social
enterprise called The HandyHelp Co which offers training and paid work opportunities to
the long-term unemployed/disadvantaged, through a handyman, gardening, property
maintenance and repairs service. Among other things, HandyHelp has been involved in the
refurbishment of empty homes and will also play a leading role in handling maintenance
work on the Home Turf Lettings portfolio. Although this isn’t part of the GoodForNothing
brief, it would be good to reflect this on our website and overall strategy.