Seaside Homes was established in November 2011 as a not-for-profit registered Charity. Our mission is to provide good-quality, safe and stable accommodation as a cornerstone for people to achieve their potential. We work closely with Brighton & Hove City Council to provide homes for people owed a statutory housing duty by the Council.
In the beginning, Seaside Homes bought the Leaseholds of 499 empty Council homes that had fallen into disrepair and disuse and that Brighton & Hove City Council could not afford to repair. Seaside secured a loan that allowed us to complete major repair works on many empty homes that had become a blight on the neighbourhood, sitting vacant and in a very poor state of repair for many years. Seaside brought these homes up to the Decent Homes Standard, and the money we paid to the Council for the Leaseholds allowed the Council to invest in bringing their other homes up to standard too. Selling the leases to us gave the Council this initial cash injection to invest in Council homes, and the long-term financial plan for Seaside Homes aims to generate surplus income for both Seaside and the Council to invest back in local housing and bring further benefits for the city.
As you can see in the map above, our homes are spread out across Brighton & Hove. Some are flats within a block where the rest are still Council homes, some are self-contained houses, and others are flats within converted street-properties where all the flats are Seaside Homes properties. The Council have 100% nomination rights to Seaside’s homes. All our homes are being used to provide much-needed temporary housing for people facing homelessness and those in housing need, to provide a safe-haven whilst people pursue long-term housing. We do not charge deposits, ask for rent-in-advance, and there is no requirement for tenants to be in employment. Seaside are committed to providing homes to people in need that are accessible to people on welfare benefits or working in the low-wage economy. We set our rents at the Local Housing Allowance rate so that tenants on benefits can afford their rent without having to pay housing costs from their other benefits.
