With social housing providing not just strong foundations for individuals, but wider community benefits, too, SoGlos speaks to Gloucester City Homes CEO, Guy Stenson, about how it's helping people out of homelessness, providing the support people need to thrive, and using the lived experience of people in Gloucester to influence national housing policies.
Guy, tell us about your background.
The majority of my career has been working in health and social care, working across different systems and organisations spanning both the public and private sector, helping people to live independent lives.
What struck me very early on was how often housing sat at the heart of the challenges people were facing. Whether someone was recovering from poor health, leaving an abusive relationship, or simply trying to find work, everything became harder if they didn't have a safe, stable home.
A good home is the foundation for a good life. If you've got a home where you feel safe and have space, you have the best chance in education, employment and later life.
Working for a national housing organisation gave me the chance to understand the wider housing system, but what attracted me to Gloucester City Homes was the opportunity to make that difference locally.
GCH is deeply rooted in Gloucester and genuinely cares about the communities it serves. That's something I connected with immediately.
What does your role at Gloucester City Homes involve?
I work very closely with our health partners, local authority, and volunteer community sectors to recognise that the homes we have available in Gloucester aren't just a roof over people's heads, but the opportunity to give them the roots to build their life, and that for some people – so people who experience domestic abuse, young people who have had a chaotic childhood, people who have mental health or physical needs, for example – they need that extra bit that supported housing brings.
I don't see GCH as an organisation that can sit on the sidelines. There are not enough genuinely affordable homes, so we're working collaboratively with other housing providers and with government to be able to bring more homes to areas where they're needed – but we're also making sure that we invest in the homes we already own, so that people can thrive in them.
What kind of housing does Gloucester City Homes provide?
We're a general needs housing association, but the vast majority of our homes are going to people who are in the very highest banded categories of assessed need. Even a standard home these days is generally let to somebody who is in significant housing need.
We have around 110 homes that we ringfence for those that require additional support – we have Hewmar House, which is specifically for young people, such as care leavers or young people who are at risk of homelessness; and we have around 100 dispersed homes that are used on a temporary basis.
We have a number of schemes that are for people who have perhaps been working with agencies for many years, and often have complex support needs.
And we have schemes that are dedicated to older people, so what would historically have been described as sheltered housing. There is not care support in our case, but there is a helping hand available for advice or guidance.
They're quite distinct groups. Somebody who has been living in the private rented sector for many years, but through no fault of their own has suddenly become homeless, has very different needs to somebody who has had a chaotic lifestyle for a long time, but we have specialist teams that work with these different groups.
Fundamentally it's about getting to know the individual and finding out how we can help them connect to the support they need to move to a permanent home. For some that could be a matter of weeks, for others it could be years, and the level of support that they need will vary.
And through the advice and support that our housing teams give people, we also help people make changes themselves, by making sure that they have the confidence to talk about their housing needs and to recognise themselves – and for those who already have a home, our tenancy sustainment teams help enable them to maximise their income, so they can live the best life they can in the home that they have.
Many people may think of homelessness as rough sleeping – but there's also hidden homelessness, such as living in temporary accommodation. What impact does this have on people's quality of life?
Until June 2026, the Vagrancy Act criminalised rough sleeping and begging. And often people who might be sofa surfing, for example, wouldn't recognise themselves as homeless, or access support.
According to figures released by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, there were 176,130 children living in temporary accommodation in England at the end of last year – that's more than the entire population of Gloucester.
That means there's a huge number of children who don't know where they're going home to that evening. They haven't got the space to do their homework. They can't develop a relationship with a school. They might be embarrassed to bring friends home. So their life chances are impacted massively.
As an adult, having a permanent home makes employment so much easier. If you haven't got a home address, it's hard to apply for a job. There are all kinds of practical elements to it.
Is demand for social housing in Gloucester increasing?
The demand is so great for social homes, there's about 5,000 people just on Gloucester City Council's housing waiting list.
If you rented a home as a young couple or as a single person, then over the years your family has grown but you can't very easily move, in those circumstances, where perhaps a child hasn't got their own space, that can make life really challenging for families, and often you see that resulting in family breakdown.
We've spent the last couple of years really trying to get to know who lives behind every front door and understand how best we can support them. That doesn't mean we can move people into a bigger home if we haven't got one available, but what it does enable us to do is look at the types of homes we're building.
Currently, we've got a development in the south of Gloucester that includes five-bedroom homes, which we traditionally wouldn't have considered building, but because we can see that demand, it changes the way we think about new homes longer term.
It could be equally about people's physical needs. Many of our newer homes are now being built to a higher level of accessibility, as a significant proportion of our residents living in Gloucester City Homes have some form of disability. Accessing support to adapt your home to make it safe and suitable for yourself is challenging, but the impact of a good home is the opposite of all of that. It just makes life easier and creates opportunities for people to thrive.
What impact does social housing have on the wider community?
A good home benefits far more than the person living there. Children are more likely to do well at school, people are more likely to stay in employment, communities become stronger because people can put down roots.
Research for the National Housing Federation and Shelter found that building 90,000 social homes a year would generate more than £50 billion in economic and social benefits over 30 years through improved health, employment, education, and reduced homelessness.
Alongside your role at GCH, you're also part of the National Housing Federation’s Supported Housing and Homelessness group – what does that involve?
Homelessness and supported housing are so interlinked, so this group brings together people who have the day-to-day experience of delivering these services and has two key functions: to identify and share best practice across the country so we can collectively raise the bar, and to ensure that we're able to influence and shape government policy in this space.
Supported housing is a niche product within the social housing sector and the number of providers is reducing, so we're really fighting the corner for supported housing and why it's important to value and protect it. It can genuinely save lives.
Being able to share the lived experiences of people directly with politicians makes sure the voices of the people living and working in these types of services are heard, it's really important to get people who are involved in the spaces to design them.
So we're using our experience to make sure that as new government funding programmes are designed, they reflect reality.
What's happening with housing in government at the moment?
In Andy Burnham's recent speech, for those of us working in housing, it was really exciting to hear him recognise that having a good life all starts from housing. He talked about the need to build more council houses, more houses that people can genuinely afford.
The devil will be in the detail of how that gets funded, but it's really positive that he's recognising housebuilding as an infrastructure investment, rather than a cost to society.
What does that mean for Gloucestershire?
With the drive for devolution, hopefully what that means is that it's the people living and working in Gloucestershire that are able to make decisions on the types of homes we have, where they go, and how they're delivered.
For us housing providers, we can't just chase the shiny new homes – in our case we've got 5,000 existing homes, so it's important that we continue investing in them and making sure that they're homes that people can be proud of and want to live in, which is no mean feat!
And at Gloucester City Homes, we invest a lot into the relationship that we have with people, providing opportunities for the people who are living in our homes to have a say and influence the kind of work we're doing.
The homelessness system can feel quite dehumanising, so we're trying to build trust with people and have an open door for our tenants – we've got a scrutiny group to help us make decisions, tenants can become a member of the board, because we want them to see themselves in what we do.
By investing in an individual for a relatively short period of time, you give them the support, the tools and the confidence to learn to live independently – and you see the impact that has.
For more information about Gloucester City Homes, visit gch.co.uk.
