Joy Kent sets out key findings from her research that suggests community-led housing has the potential to play a much bigger role in tackling homelessness.
Can community-led housing (CLH) contribute more to responding to homelessness for people with support and care needs? This was the central question of a recent Cwmpas project.
Wales is deep in a housing emergency. Local authorities are overwhelmed, homelessness is rising, and the gap between need and supply continues to widen. In this context, community‑led housing is often treated as a niche alternative — admirable, perhaps, but peripheral to the ‘real’ work of tackling the crisis.
Yet emerging evidence suggests that CLH could play a far more significant role. It offers new pathways into housing, strengthens communities, and provides options for people who are poorly served by existing systems. But to unlock this potential, Wales must confront a set of persistent structural barriers.
Funding, finance and confidence
For many groups, the biggest challenge is securing capital to buy, build or renovate homes. While some CLH groups don’t see funding as their main barrier, partners in local government, housing associations and the third sector often do. Without reliable capital and revenue funding, organisations are understandably cautious about engaging.
This is especially true where long‑term support or care is required. Providers and commissioners worry about sustainability, particularly given inconsistent implementation of Direct Payments and the management burden placed on groups.
A Welsh Government‑backed revolving loan or grant fund could significantly reduce this risk and build confidence across the sector in terms of getting started while ensuring robust long-term arrangements are in place with local authorities around revenue, care and support are also needed.
Planning and land: recognition vs reality
Whilst Planning Policy Wales 12 formally recognises CLH as providers of affordable housing, local understanding and practice is inconsistent. Interviewees report delays, confusion and misinterpretation — including CLH schemes being mistaken for HMOs. Under‑resourced planning departments compound the problem.
Embedding explicit CLH guidance within local planning frameworks would help planners, developers and communities understand what CLH is (and isn’t), reducing uncertainty and speeding up approvals.
Capacity, confidence and system overload
CLH groups are typically driven by passion and frustration, but they often lack the time and expertise to navigate complex processes. Groups interviewed often expressed the view that without support from Cwmpas, they wouldn’t have made the progress they had. Meanwhile, local authority housing and homelessness teams are operating in crisis‑management mode where new thinking becomes a luxury.
This mutual capacity gap can stall projects. Strengthening the enabling environment through expanded Cwmpas hub functions, CLH champions within local authorities and housing and support organistions, practical toolkits and peer networks would help sustain momentum.
Perception problems: from fringe to mainstream
CLH still suffers from misconceptions. Some see it as ‘hippy housing’ or an unrealistic alternative. These perceptions exist not only among the public but within government, where political support for CLH does not always translate into operational understanding across departments.
Storytelling, case studies and peer learning are essential to normalising CLH and demonstrating its relevance to mainstream housing challenges.
Community resistance and the power of inclusion
Stigma remains a barrier, particularly for groups we focused on. Yet CLH offers a platform to challenge stigma and build cohesion. Inclusive, mixed‑community models — where refugees, young people and local residents live alongside each other — were seen as particularly promising.
Agency, fairness and the realities of a rationed system
One of the most sensitive findings from my research relates to agency. CLH both requires and enables people to make choices, express preferences and shape their own housing solutions. While this aligns with policy narratives around empowerment, some professionals worry that CLH benefits those who already have the agency to navigate systems — rather than those in the greatest need.
But this tension reflects a deeper truth: in a rationed system, where only the most acute cases receive help, people with moderate yet real needs are left with few options. Evidence shows that such systems can reinforce dependency, increase vulnerability and sharpen ‘deserving vs undeserving’ divides.
CLH offers a way to mitigate these dynamics by expanding the range of available pathways and reducing pressure on crisis‑driven services.
Prevention, planning and community strength
CLH is often dismissed as too slow to help people in crisis. But many groups are not responding to immediate emergencies — they are planning ahead. Parents and carers of disabled young adults and people concerned about young people in precarious and unsuitable accommodation are looking to CLH to create future‑focused solutions.
This echoes the origins of many housing associations in the 1960s and 1970s, when grassroots groups mobilised in response to visible housing injustice. A similar civic energy is emerging today.
Harnessing this energy could expand housing options, reduce crisis demand and strengthen community resilience.
A moment of opportunity
CLH is not a silver bullet. But it is a powerful, underused tool that can complement current provision, expand capacity and create housing rooted in community, solidarity and long‑term thinking.
With the right support — from Welsh Government, local authorities, housing associations, homelessness and support organisations and communities themselves — Wales can move CLH from the margins to the mainstream.
Joy Kent is an independent consultant. If you’d like further information on this project, please email joy@joy-unlimited.co.uk or call: 07393 350049. Casey Edwards is the community-led housing project manager. She can be contacted at casey.edwards@cwmpas.coop or calling 07771 554948.