Thirty years ago a vicar based in Portishead observed that many people across North Somerset were being excluded from renting their own properties because of all the monies they needed to find up front to cover rent deposits and other fees being levied on them by landlords. Consequently, many people were ending up on the streets homeless.
Building on connections he had with landlords, the vicar devised a scheme whereby a landlord would accept a ‘Bond’ in lieu of a financial rent deposit. The organisation he set up would guarantee the value of the ‘Bond’ should anything go wrong with the tenancy, thus relieving the prospective tenant of this upfront financial liability. The organisation was given the name, the ‘Woodspring Deposit Guarantee Board’ (WDGB). The local authority liked the bond scheme and they invited WDGB to find properties and provide bonds on their behalf, providing most of the funding to operate the scheme with additional funding from local churches to support tenants with additional needs (e.g. for new white goods or kitchen equipment).
Unfortunately, North Somerset Council discontinued their funding in 2011 meaning that the charity was faced with a funding crisis even though the need for housing the homeless and potentially homeless was greater than ever.
The charity was relaunched in 2014 with a more accessible name “KeySteps” – a name that encapsulated its two main activities:
- providing the key to the front door for individuals to grow into independent living
- supporting these individuals (and others) in taking steps along their journey by providing help to navigate benefits, help with any essentials, skills training, telephone access and a signposting service to other charities.
During the pandemic, the offices closed but the charity continued to function by providing its services by telephone and the internet.
To date, KeySteps has helped approximately 3,000 people to obtain housing, with around 80 bonds still in place across North Somerset.
In 2022, KeySteps realised they had an aging population of Trustees and its two staff members were looking to reduce their hours. The charity recruited some new Trustees but was unable to find anybody suitable to supplement the staff with a view to taking the lead over time. KeySteps has always punched above its weight in the homeless sector and it was felt that there were some good direct and indirect assets that would be useful to another charity.
KeySteps has a Christian ethos and one of its early Trustees was Chris Hibbs who stood down from the charity to be a founding trustee of Changing Lives Charity in 2015. In 2024, Chris was approached and he enthusiastically directed KeySteps to start a dialogue with Changing Lives.
KeySteps will continue as a working name of Changing Lives Charity and will start to build relationships with local landlords so that it can continue to move people away from homelessness. The existing tenant support complements the Volunteer+ programme and further fundraising will continue to enhance and support Changing Lives Charity's ability to deliver sustainable services in the future.
Watch this space for further developments as the two charities move forward towards an even brighter future...
Martin Knight, Trustee
