An evolving housing model
Almshouses are often splendid historic buildings with fascinating features such as dedications to their benefactors, including statues, inscriptions, coats of arms, clock towers and sundials. Many retain beautiful chapels where regular services are still held and provide communal gardens for their residents. They are usually laid out in a traditional three-sided square providing a sense of security and community for their residents. A unique feature of an almshouse charity which has been consistent throughout the ages is that they are governed by locally recruited, voluntarytrustees whose motives are purely altruistic.
The almshouse model, being proved to support wellbeing and reduce isolation, is still relevant today and can provide life-changing opportunities for local communities across the country. It is also a form of genuinely affordable housing with residents paying a weekly maintenance contribution, rather than rent, for the upkeep of the almshouses, which is often based on local housing allowance. With this in mind, almshouses may be regarded as being part of the solution to the national housing crisis we are experiencing today.
The unique almshouse model goes beyond the design of the buildings and, indeed, some of the new almshouses do not always follow the traditional three-sided style. Above all, it is the manner of delivery of the accommodation that makes almshouses so special, based upon the creation of ‘community spirit’ which is often encouraged by building into the design, a courtyard or community space to support and promote neighbourliness. Whilst almshouses were mostly occupied by older people of limited means, increasingly provision is being made for younger people and young families in need as well as veterans, the homeless and people with disabilities.
In many rural areas, almshouses are the only form of affordable housing.
Across the country, some 1,600 individual almshouse charities still carry the name and the spirit of their original benefactor and their families, as they have done through the centuries, and they continue to be vibrant today in providing special homes to 36,000 people. Built and run by compassionate people with community and need at their heart; small scale and reliant upon philanthropy and the commitment of trustees, this unique housing model is a small, but significant part of the national solution to affordable housing.
The almshouse model is based on creating small scale, safe, secure homes for local people, run by local trustees.
Almshouses are distinct both in their charitable status, their spirit and their legal status. In 2019, with the help of the Charity Commission, they received legal status recognising the unique character of this community led housing model. They are protected from The Right to Buy and other legal challenges that often diminish social housing and are, therefore, available in perpetuity for generations to come.