Social housing energy upgrade

Aim: We want to upgrade our supported housing to save energy and money for our vulnerable, low-income tenants and for the charity.

Happy Days UK is a charity providing many services for people who are homeless and in crisis in Halifax. We do this through our winter night shelter, Complex Lives drop-in service, free community cafe, community supermarket and long-term supported housing programmes.

The charity owns 57 independent flats that are let by low-income, elderly, vulnerable or formerly homeless residents. These flats are long overdue an energy-saving upgrade as they are cold and damp. The council has offered to fund 2/3 of the cost of upgrades to heating, insulation and ventilation, vastly increasing tenants' comfort and reducing energy costs and the charity's maintenance costs.

However, our share of the work amounts to £123,000 in total. This would eat a large hole into our charity reserves and affect our ability to run our essential crisis care services. However, by raising the money, we will be able to futureproof our properties and our residents' health, while also saving a large amount of fuel each year. We have set an initial target of £13,806 for the first instalment, which covers assessment and coordination of 39 flats at a single site.