Canopy Housing Annual Report 2019-20

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Annual Report

A busy and challenging year When I joined Canopy a little over 2½ years ago, I didn’t expect to be spending much of my time at home; yet at the time of writing we are in the midst of a government-imposed lockdown, our offices are deserted and whilst site work continues, we have had to make do without the volunteers who are so important to the work we do.

Last year, our volunteers contributed more than ever before, clocking up well over 1,000 site days between them. Before the lockdown, we were on target to smash that record this year thanks to our new CHOPS project. Whether we can still do that is now in the lap of the Gods.

David

The CHOPS project - based in Harehills - encourages volunteers to get involved in street improvement works, skills exchanges and rolling out selfhelp into the private rented sector. Through an ‘Engagement First’ strategy centred around these three activities, we aim to help people into employment, education and training.

The project was set up originally as an East Leeds Community-Led Local Development (CLLD) scheme, part-funded by the European Social Fund. However, as COVID-19 took hold, it became clear that it would be impractical to carry out the activities we had planned for Spring and Summer 2020 and thus impossible to deliver on the challenging outcomes we had agreed within a limited time frame. Despite the loss of future funding, we aim to find alternative backers and continue with the project once lockdown is over.

There was better news in June 2019, when Leeds City Council extended the leases on 37 of Canopy’s properties to 99 years. Now that we have a long-term interest in them, Unity Bank are prepared to lend us more money, allowing us to accelerate our development programme, turning more empty houses into homes and offering more volunteering and self-help opportunities.

Late last year, we also dipped our toe into ‘Housing First’, a way of working that allows street homeless people to move into their own home with a full support package around them (rather than going through the hostel system). Thanks to funding from Leeds Quakers, our first client moved in just in time for Christmas and the second moved in a couple of months later. Both contributed through self-help, although – due to their circumstances – they were not expected to wait quite so long for a property to be ready!

During 2020, we are finally aiming to become a Registered Provider of Social Housing. Doing so will make us eligible for Homes England funding and allow other providers to transfer properties to us more easily‌ if we can finally get out of this lockdown, that is!

Canopy’s success is built on the hard work and enthusiasm of its self-helpers, volunteers and staff.

Without them and the financial support of our key benefactors, most notably Land Aid and Henry Smith Foundation, we could not do what we do. I would like to thank you all for your support and I look forward to achieving even more with you in the year to come.

David - Canopy Director

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Meet Samira

- Our New Tenant

My parents kicked me out because I was pregnant, they put all my stuff outside & asked me to leave. I didn’t have anywhere to go, so I stayed in a hostel. My family verbally abused me if they saw me on the street, so I moved to Leeds.

I stayed with a boyfriend but he started to beat me, so I moved to my friend’s house and stayed on the sofa with my baby, but I was not settled there. It was bad, cold and many problems in that house.

I was not happy.

Canopy called and now I am settled, I have my own house, nobody is going to ask me to go, leave the house. Now it’s my house I can do what I want.

I really like living in a Canopy house, I never think it was going to be like this! Yes, so much better than I thought, it’s like a new house.

I like the decoration, the colours, I like the kitchen because it’s big.

I like everything about the house.

Canopy helped me get my baby into a children’s centre and me onto an ESOL course. If you have a problem with anything, money, universal credit, bills etc. Canopy can help.

Canopy is charity who support people who don’t have any house, anywhere to go. Their support is best.

Samira - Canopy Tenant

Meet Leroy - Volunteer I met Jasmine the support worker on the backstreet and she was telling me about Canopy, I wasn’t too hyped about the volunteering side, I thought I am not doing that. I turned up though, knocked on the door and she was surprised to see me!

Since then I have been here.

I like volunteering, you meet new people, friendly people. I don’t usually get on with people me, don’t like big groups, but since I came here it’s been great, I’ve made friends. I can’t wait to come in to volunteer.

Before I came to Canopy I wasn’t doing nothing really, I was just sat at home as usual, everyday doing the same thing. When I was younger I did get into a lot of trouble, I got a lengthy criminal record, but I’ve not been in trouble for over 5 years, I am really proud of that.

Canopy means everything to me, it gets me out of the house, it’s stressful and depressing just sitting in the house… just doing nothing. But when volunteering comes around, I am happy.

We come in at 9am, get told what needs doing and start work, ripping down walls, doing skirting, painting, plastering, fitting kitchens, flooring, insulation, I am learning loads of things here, it’s madness.

I want everyone to know how good Canopy is, they have the right answers for everything and you just help so many people, it’s brilliant.

I don’t want to leave here, me. It’s such a highlight, just to come, have a laugh and get down and dirty and do some work, it’s great. I do love it!

Leroy Fitzgerald - Canopy Volunteer

Leroy Fitzgerald

The love and time that volunteers put in to help me make a home, words can’t describe it! Doing self-help, you get to see what the house looked like at the beginning.

It’s crazy how much it changes each week.

You realise how hard you work when you can’t get out of bed the next day.

I never used a drill until I started here, now I am cutting wood, fixing boards and using a circular saw….that was terrifying!

Katy

When it’s finished, I can say I put the skirting on, screwed boards down and made my home!

Katy - Self-helper Self-helpers I was street homeless until Canopy.

I think the self-help system is fantastic, it gives you ownership in the property and it also gives you a reason to get up on a morning.

I really enjoyed the volunteering, it was the first time l was actually tired, because I had actually done something.

I mean there were times in the past where getting up on a morning was the last thing I wanted to do, now I enjoy my day, I got a lot to be thankful for.

Andrew - Self-helper

Andrew

Volunteering and Self-help Our volunteers do an amazing job of helping us renovate houses and turn them into safe and cosy homes. It’s great to see people go from having never picked up a hammer to installing fireproof boards to a basement ceiling like it’s nothing!

For volunteers who have had their own personal struggles, we love to see them grow in confidence, make friends and improve their quality of life whilst volunteering with us. This is as much a part of volunteering at Canopy as creating homes for people in desperate need of accommodation.

This year we’ve also had volunteers help us cook lovely tasty lunches to show off their favourite cultural cuisine with our community. We’ve been treated to everything from barbecued lamb kebabs to pumpkin soup.

In addition, we have supported some volunteers through their CSCS card training. We are so proud to help our volunteers to qualify to work on construction sites, so they can further their career, doing what they love, creating homes for people.

Canopy wouldn’t be Canopy without our dedicated volunteer team. A huge thank you to everyone that has helped us this year. We really couldn’t have done it without you!

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It’s not all work and no play . . .

The Canopy community have FUN too!

From tenants cooking delicious community meals to walks in the Yorkshire Dales, from Iranian street BBQs to Scarborough seaside trips and the Canopy Christmas meal.

‘Canopy is my family’ Tenant ‘This has just given me so much more confidence being at Canopy’ Volunteer ‘It's honestly been so transformative for me, I look forward to it so much’ Volunteer ‘I love it here, just to come, have a laugh and get down and dirty and do some work’ Volunteer ‘My wife, wherever she goes, she tells everyone about Canopy, how much they help us’ Self-helper ‘A lot of Romanian families around here need help and they don’t get it, Canopy are Angels!’

Marian Popovici - Roma interpreter ‘Keep up the all the amazing work you all do in Harehills, you guys are the pride of the community’ Imran - Harehills resident

CHOPS: East Leeds Project Canopy launched an exciting new project in East Leeds last year with support from the European Structural Investment Fund. We are concentrating our efforts on people and properties in the Harehills area of Leeds.

The aims of the project are to support private sector tenants to improve their homes through our award-winning self-help housing model, to help local residents to enhance their neighbourhood and to launch a Library of Things. These activities will provide new opportunities for engagement, volunteering and self-help. We will use these engagement opportunities to provide further help, advice and employment support, face-to-face, in residents’ homes and from our base in Harehills.

This new funding has allowed Canopy to employ more staff and become a community anchor in one of the most deprived areas in the UK.

Residents in the area can get involved in ‌

Volunteering, including training in painting and decorating, joinery and plastering

Gardening and street improvement projects

House renovations and community meals

Advice and support

Help looking for work and training opportunities

Fun, friends and a brew!

Landlords in the area, we can help with ‌

Engaging your tenants to help them look after their home

Carrying out everyday repairs and bringing properties in line with current standards

Carrying out specialist repairs through our network of approved contractors

We can act as a managing agent, collecting rent, carrying out essential repairs and dealing with conflicts

Publicity and Partners Canopy’s work attracts plenty of attention from the media and its innovative selfhelp model continues to shine. In 2019 one of our tenants talked about her Canopy experience in a full page article in the Guardian newspaper. BBC Inside Out, Look North and ITV Calendar News all visited Canopy to film and promote the work we do, which was great!

We’re happy to be involved in these kinds of activities and recognise the importance of highlighting our work. This coverage hopefully inspires others to set up similar self-help projects and helps raise awareness of the wasted resources of long-term empty properties.

In 2019 the national network for community organisations (Locality) held its annual convention in Leeds. It attracted over 500 community-based delegates from across the UK and people from a host of organisations visited Canopy as part of this event. This provided people with an opportunity to meet our volunteers and staff and ask questions about the work we do. It was also an ideal occasion to exchange good working practices and share our knowledge and enthusiasm for community-led housing.

Creating homes Over the last few months we have started a new Right to Buy Replacement Programme, bringing long-term empty houses back into use. We have already bought three properties, two of which have already become homes to our new tenants. We have twelve to go and they all need to be finished in two years’ time!

In 2019 we also converted our old empty office on Lady Pit Lane back into residential accommodation.

It was completely refurbished and became a home to one of our volunteers’ family.

In the midst of all this we still turned around our voids; making them more energy efficient by insulating the roof voids and cellars.

Our aim for the future is to develop a low carbon approach to energy efficiency by using natural materials that work together with the fabric of our properties, so watch this space for some new spangling eco-developments.

An empty property tranformed into a Canopy home

The Canopy coffers Canopy continues in good health this year. Our core rental income was £561k, a 3% increase on the previous year. Our activities attracted over £300k in trust income to the areas in which we operate. This money also allowed us to deliver enhanced support to our residents and a full volunteer programme.

During the year, Leeds City Council extended 37 of our leases to 99 years, improving the value of our assets by £3.25 million. We can never realise these assets by selling them, but the council’s generosity does allow us to borrow more easily and continue our programme of acquiring and refurbishing empty homes.

We spent £300k purchasing and refurbishing three properties to provide additional good quality and affordable homes for our community. We also spent over £60k maintaining and £80k improving our existing housing stock. We increased our borrowing by £110k during the year, prudently reducing the value of debt below 20% of the value of the organisation.

The financial management areas we focused on during the year were organising the grant funding and loan agreement. This will allow Canopy to purchase a further 12 properties over the next two years, whilst also developing more transparent financial reporting.

THANK YOU to everyone who has

helped us in a host of different ways

Volunteers: Alan, Alex, Andrew F, Andrew W, Andy G, Angela, Aram, Billy, Bradley, Cameron, Carl, Charlie, Che, Claire, Danny, David, Dawit, Dawn, Debra, Elliot, Ezra, Farhad, Farshad, Finn, Florence, Georgia, Glenn, Grace, Hakeem, Harry E, Harry F, Imene, Jacob, James H, James P, Jamie S, Jessica, Justyna, Kai, Kajal, Kathryn, Katie W, Katy S, Kirsty, Kosei, Leroy F, Leroy I, Lieke, Lionel, Lisa, Liviu, Lola, Lorina, Louay, Maisie, Mark, Marta, Michael M, Michael S, Michelle, Molly, Mussie, Nasser, Nathaniel, Neil, Nicola, Orla, Philippa, Phoenix, Pippa, Saima (Sam), Sajid, Sam, Sarah, Shea, Sian, Sinead, Tilly H, Til W, Wael, Wayne, Yacouba, Yousif, Zahid, Special thanks to Neil Carmichael, Debra Gillan & Mark Kelso for so many years of volunteering. All our tenants, staff and contractors.

Board: Keith, Mark, Bridget, Janet, Steve, Mhairi, Martyn, Nicola, Ben and Charlie.

Funders: Energising East Leeds CLLD, LandAid, Leeds Community Foundation, Quaker Housing Trust, Leeds Quakers, Asda Foundation, The Henry Smith Charity, Jimbo’s Fund, LCC Language Hub, Beatrice Laing Foundation, Liz & Terry Bramall Charity Trust. A Big Thank you to Bundobust and all individual donors who give as they earn, make one off payments or donate on monthly direct debits.

Friends, Partners and Associates: Sedulo, Michael Wicks (Unity Trust Bank), Paul Beetham at Kingfisher Windows, Campus 87, Giroscope, Latch, GIPSIL, Leeds Community Homes, Unity Homes, Jon Fitzmaurice, Steve Ellis at Tekspertise, Cleanstart, Tony, Cass, Sophie, Meena and Jo at Locality, VAL (Giving Time), Councillor Debra Coupar, Neil Evans (LCC), Mark Ireland, Sarbjit Kaur, Ian Kenning, Grace Lawrenson, Neil Young and all the team at Leeds City Council, Andy Haigh at Bellbrooke Surgery, David Glew, Lewis Ronaldson, Gill Coupland - Empty Homes Doctor, James Shedlow, Steve Hoey, Tim Wrigley, David Knight, Tracey Jukes, John Puddephatt, Jamie Crellin at Leeds Printing Company, World Habitat Awards team, Hyde Park Source, Learning Partnerships, Meeting Point Cafe, CATCH, Harehills in Bloom, Nowell Community Group and Burmantofts Residents & Tenants Association, Christina Rosca, Chris Bailey at Action on Empty Homes, David Mullins, Graham Brookfield and Richard Panter at Homes England, Lyn Charters, Steve Keyes, Michael Braithwaite, Alison Haskins, Dave Fawcett, Cathy Wheatcroft, Balfour Beatty and Squire Patton Boggs.

It’s nice when people say hello or smile at you ...

I found Canopy through MIND. I said to the worker there that I fancied doing painting and decorating, and she suggested Canopy, which was exactly what I wanted. It was just absolutely perfect, because I had suffered from mental health problems for half my life and it came to the point where I was just wandering around every day and not doing anything.

Canopy is an ideal opportunity to meet people, everyone’s got a different background and they don’t make judgments about your background, they just treat you as an equal, which was the first time I had come across that. I used to get really low, I wouldn’t meet anyone before, I was really poorly, I wouldn’t even go out with my friends.

I worked in Yorkshire Bank’s loan dept and then later, doing wages for 1000 employees. But then, it was unexplained really, I just became unwell and I couldn’t do the work anymore, I wouldn’t talk to anyone. Then I had to finish work. It took absolutely years to find out what it was, and it was schizophrenia. I had my own flat then, but I couldn’t look after it anymore. I started hearing voices, I knew then something had to be done, I was crouching down in my

bedroom, just so scared. I phoned me Mam & Dad up and I have been living there ever since.

Canopy helped me find a hospitality course because I wanted to work in a cafe, so that was my first step in doing any kind of course.

Volunteering has given me so much more confidence and taught me DIY skills. It’s quite inspirational to see the house before and then after when it’s finished, the person who’s very lucky, will be moving in, they must feel very happy. I have actually painted three rooms in my Mam & Dad’s house and I am decorating their bathroom next. Mam & Dad are really pleased with my work.

You can speak to Jasmine the Canopy support worker in confidence and know it’s not going to go any further. I definitely would recommend Canopy and I am just very happy here. My next step is to get a paid job in a cafe. It’s another step forward.

I am always saying hello to loads of people now, where as before, I just wouldn’t even speak to anyone. It’s a real change, it’s nice when people say hello or smile at you.

Monica - Canopy Volunteer

‘It makes you happy being here, it’s very inspirational’ Burley Office 66 Burley Lodge Road Leeds LS6 1QF Harehills Office 41 Bellbrooke Place Leeds LS9 6AR 0113 294 6868 Email us: info@canopyhousing.org Visit us: www.canopyhousing.org

Canopy Housing is a registered society under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014. Regulated by the FCA number 28665R. Exempt charity status number XR21692