the story so far
2001 – PHASES’ predecessor, ‘Advocates for the Homeless’, was set up as a Company Limited by Guarantee and registered with the Charity Commission. The organisation sprang from a research project undertaken as part of the regeneration of the Elephant & Castle.
2001 – 2005 – The charity develops a way of working with homeless people which combines advice with a central goal of moving them into training and work
2006 – Advocates for the Homeless are aware that many of the people they help have either had experience of the construction industry or want to get into it. At the same time they realise that there are many empty buildings around London. They make initial contact with Southwark Council Regeneration Department about obtaining an empty property to work on.
2007 – The charity obtains a ten year lease from Southwark Council on its first property which is on Wyndham Road, Camberwell. The property is a former doctor’s surgery which had been empty for five years. Work with trainees to renovate the building begins.
2008 – Renovation of Wyndham Road is completed. The refurbished building is opened by David Ireland, Chief Executive of the Empty Homes Agency. The ground floor is let out to another charity and the first floor provides a three bed flat for a homeless family.
2009 – Another ten year lease is taken from Southwark Council on a former lock-up shop with attached flat in Rotherhithe. This property has been empty for three years. The building is renovated with trainees. The lock-up shop is converted into the charity’s construction workshop and the flat is let out to a homeless family.
2010 – The charity changes its name to ‘Phases Social Enterprise’.
2011 – PHASES takes its first lease of a privately-owned empty property – a two bed flat in Peckham. The property is renovated and features on the BBC TV series ‘Britain’s Empty Homes’.
2012 – 2015 – PHASES is the only organisation nationally to be funded under three separate rounds of the government’s Empty Homes Community Grants Programme. Under this Programme it receives over £1M to bring five houses and nine flats back into use as affordable housing.
2017 – 200th homeless trainee completes training at our workshop.
2018 – The charity prepares plans for its first new build project – five flats on a former car lot site in Brockley