Fix Supported Housing: Fund What Works, Not Just What’s Big

Table of Contents

Summary

This article sets out the urgent challenges facing supported housing in the UK—from widespread provider closures and NHS discharge delays to a national shortfall of nearly 400,000 homes. It argues that current funding and regulation systems fail to support values-led charity providers like Zetetick Housing, who specialise in tailored homes for adults with learning disabilities, autism, and additional needs. The piece calls for targeted reform, smarter funding, and protection for the providers who already deliver real outcomes. It ends with practical calls to action for care partners, funders, commissioners, and the public.

Safe homes change lives. But we are running out of time to provide them.

In supported housing, everything starts with the home, but it does not end there. Homes must be safe, yes. But they must also be stable, suitable, supported, and secure. They must work for the person, not just on paper. And that is precisely where the system is falling short.

Supported housing isn’t a luxury. It’s not a policy experiment. It’s not a ‘nice-to-have.’

It’s the difference between a vulnerable adult living in dignity or being trapped in hospital, homeless, or worse.

At Zetetick Housing, we work with people who need support to manage their home: adults with learning disabilities, autism, and additional needs. Our work is part of a bigger picture, one that too many in government and the public still don’t see clearly. That picture is cracking. And the cracks are widening fast.

Across the UK, supported housing is at risk of collapse not because the need has gone away, but because the system isn’t being funded or structured to succeed.

Let’s be clear. This isn’t just a housing problem. It’s a national crisis with human and financial consequences that affect the NHS, local councils, care partners, and society as a whole.

The Numbers Tell a Stark Story

The latest figures from the National Housing Federation are enough to chill the bones of anyone working in this sector:

56% of supported housing providers say they are likely to close schemes without urgent funding
That includes 47% of those providing housing for people with learning disabilities
And it’s not hypothetical: 77% say demand for their services has increased over the past year
(Inside Housing article)

This is the kind of data that should have ministers knocking down doors. Instead, we are still being asked to justify why supported housing matters. Still being asked to patch up gaps with goodwill, while regulatory change looms and funding stagnates.

Smaller charities with lived experience and a deep understanding of tenant needs are being sidelined by a system that prizes scale over soul. “What counts can’t always be counted.” But in supported housing, a model has been built by the state and regulator that often ignores the most valuable work.

What Happens When Supported Housing Fails? Ask the NHS.

When someone with autism or a learning disability is stuck in hospital not because they need medical treatment, but because there is nowhere else for them to go, that is a failure of housing.

In 2023 to 2024, delayed discharges from mental health units cost the NHS an estimated £71 million. Every week, nearly 500 patients were stuck in hospital for more than three weeks after being declared fit for discharge. Most were waiting for supported housing, not care.

(The Guardian)

The financial cost is staggering. But the human cost is worse. Prolonged stays in hospital can trigger trauma, increase anxiety, reduce independence, and result in institutionalisation that takes years to undo, if it ever is.

Imagine a 27-year-old with autism and a learning disability, declared fit for discharge but left in a psychiatric ward for 11 weeks due to a lack of appropriate housing. That is not healthcare. That is abandonment.

Providers like Zetetick do not just offer a roof. We offer a route home. Yet the current system makes it easier to fund uniformity than complexity, even when complexity is what people need.

How Did It Get This Bad?

The Supported Housing Review 2023, commissioned by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, found the country faces a shortfall of between 179,600 and 388,100 supported homes. And the demand is not slowing. By 2040, we will need 640,700 more supported housing units than we currently have.

This is not simply a market failure. It is a planning failure, a funding failure, and a communication failure. Charitable providers delivering specialist housing are being edged out by regulations that reward volume, not value.

We should be backing those who build trust, not just those who build property portfolios. Instead, we are seeing mission-led housing excluded from major contracts and subsidy schemes because it does not fit the system’s preferred mould.

Local, mission and values-led housing providers should not be penalised for caring too much or scaling too slowly. A funding system that equates quality with quantity will always miss the mark. And yet that is what we have, a framework where doing the right thing often costs more than doing the bare minimum. Vulnerable people desrve more than the bare minimum.

The Funding Model Is Broken

The Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 is meant to improve standards, but for values-led providers already delivering safe, stable homes, it risks becoming yet another administrative hurdle. New requirements are being layered onto a system that has not been resourced to cope. And while we welcome scrutiny that protects tenants, we must ensure that regulation enables good providers to thrive, not drive them out.

It is telling that the government has extended the deadline for responses to the Act’s consultation because so many people and organisations felt the need to speak out. That shows the strength of feeling in the sector. It also shows that the Act, if applied bluntly, could hurt the very providers who are getting it right.

Let us be honest. The current funding model for supported housing does not serve the people who rely on it, or the providers trying to deliver it. The more complex a person’s needs, the more time, coordination, and compassion it takes to keep them stably housed. That work is called ‘intensive housing management’, and it includes things like coordinating with care teams, arranging adaptations, 24/7 maintnenace, dealing with crises, or just making sure the person has a landlord who actually understands them. it involves going far above and beyond what a general Landlord would do.

Housing Benefit no longer covers the real costs of managing complex needs
Regulatory changes bring new burdens without additional funding
Councils are squeezed. The NHS is stretched. Charities are expected to do more, for less

Instead of funding what works, homes shaped around care, relationships, and trust, we fund what is big, process-heavy, and easier to monitor from afar. The system does not reward those who prevent crisis; it rewards those who survive it with the right forms filled in. We need to fix supported housing.

When values-led providers are squeezed out, the quality of support drops. Reform must protect the organisations that deliver long-term outcomes, starting with tailored funding and appropriate regulation.

We Need a New Approach

It is not enough to talk about reform. We need to ask: reform for whom? And to what end?

At our charity Zetetick Housing, we believe in solutions that:

Reward quality and outcomes, not just compliance
Recognise the role of care partners as central to supported housing delivery
Create funding streams that reflect the true cost of intensive housing management
Protect non-profit and charitable providers from being squeezed out by large registered providers
Support the expansion of stock through viable leasing and acquisition models
Shape implementation of the Supported Housing Regulatory Oversight Act in a way that protects quality, rewards good practice, and reflects the realities of specialist, not-for-profit/charity housingproviders

This is how we turn the tide: by creating contracts and regulatory expectations that reflect lived experience, not just administrative neatness. Quality should mean tenancy sustainment, not just tenant sign-up. It should mean fewer evictions, more trust, and stronger local partnerships. That is what outcomes should look like and we should be funded accordingly.

Local Partnerships Cannot Be Afterthoughts

Supported housing only works when it is rooted in local partnerships.

At Zetetick, we partner with care organisations, not just councils or regulators. Our tenants thrive because our relationships work. We do not just lease properties, we manage, maintain, and support. We listen.

Paperwork does not keep people housed. People do.

If you are a commissioner, a care provider, a family member, or a funder who wants to understand why this model works, start here:

What You Can Do

1. If you are a care provider:

Talk to us. We are actively working with organisations across London and the South East to take on new supported housing stock. We have successfully stepped in where other landlords are withdrawing. If you are struggling to find the right partner for a particular tenant group—especially where needs are complex: Zetetick is here to help.

2. If you are in local government or NHS discharge planning:

Housing delays block beds, break spirits, and burn through budgets. Supported housing cannot be an afterthought in commissioning or discharge planning. It needs to be built in from the start: with trusted providers like Zetetick at the table.

3. If you are a policymaker or MP:

This is your moment to act. The legislation is here. The consultation is live. But the danger is real. If you want to protect the vulnerable and preserve good providers, then make sure the new rules support what is already working.

4. If you are a funder or donor:

Public funding alone is not enough. Charitable support helps us go further—covering costs that fall between the cracks of benefit systems or government contracts. If you believe everyone deserves a safe, supported home, your donation can make that belief real.

Donate or get involved

5. If you are a member of the public:

Understand that supported housing is not just for ‘other people.’ It is for vulnerable neighbours across your community.

It Is Not Just a Crisis. It Is a Choice.

We are often told that the crisis in supported housing is a funding issue. But that is only half the truth.

It is also a moral issue.

Because choosing not to fund supported housing properly, when we know the damage that causes, is still a choice.

We can choose differently.

We can build a system that rewards care, sustains quality, and supports providers who put people first.

Zetetick Housing is ready. We are grounded, experienced, and here for the long term. We do not need a revolution. We need recognition and the right kind of support to do more of what we already do well.

The question is: will the system catch up before it is too late?