Our Story

The UK is in an acute housing crisis.

This is no secret. There are not enough homes to go around for everyone, let alone enough social housing for the more vulnerable among us.

Like everyone else, people with complex needs need to live in the right environment to support their wellbeing and quality of life. This gives them the tools to grow, allowing for fuller participation in and contribution to the wider society.

Young adults with mental health needs and learning disabilities are particularly vulnerable, and they need our support to access safe and secure housing. They have the right to live independently. Sadly however, it has been widely reported that the quality of supported living in the UK is poor and not fit for purpose. Abuse in institutional care is no secret either.

When we first decided to go into business together as property developers, we wanted to be among the ‘good guys’ in real estate. The truth is, with a combined background between us of 20 years in real estate and finance we could have easily built anything; and happily developed profitable property portfolios. But it was more important for us to build a sustainable business, delivering property with purpose; making a real difference along the way.

We stumbled upon the supported living sector by chance. The more we got into it, the more we realised how transformative supported living accommodation can be to those in need. It has the power to change people’s lives. And not only the lives of the vulnerable adults themselves who live in them, but those of their families and friends too.

As we began our research, we soon realised that providing specialist supported living accommodation can be complex. You have to understand the nuances of providing care. You also have to understand how all the moving parts in the system work, how social housing is commissioned, who are the key players involved and what makes for a profitable development.

So, we set out to handpick a team that would bring those specialist skills and experience to the table and expand our team.

All of us come from very different backgrounds, but our mission is the same – to empower the vulnerable adults around us to live as independent lives as they can.

In the summer of 2020, amongst the chaos of a global pandemic, we rebranded as ‘Empowered Homes’.

Empowered Homes today has a collective vision. To date we have delivered 75 properties, giving new homes to nearly 1000 vulnerable adults.

We were once asked to invest further capital on a property we had already sold, at the request of the Housing Association. The request was to create a landscaped play area for a pair of autistic boys to enable them to grow and develop in the safety of their own backyard. We did it, with no questions asked.

We don’t ever forget about our tenants, even after we have sold the property.

We are not simply property developers who are looking to get into supported living to diversify our property portfolio, or investors who want to enter a new market. We are implicitly here to improve the quality of supported living accommodation and help people with disabilities and other complex needs to find the home they need to grow and thrive.

We are here to shake up the supported living property sector by providing demand-led value to Care Providers, building meaningful partnerships with our Housing Association and Local Authority collaborators, and ultimately bringing joy to our end user tenants. We are here to empower vulnerable adults to live independently, enabling them to thrive in their own communities.

It’s not easy, but we choose to do it anyway.

The challenge that lies ahead of us is immense, given the scale of the demand. We may not be able to help everyone in need ourselves as we currently develop small scale properties. But if this inspires others in the property sector to join us and rise up to the challenge to deliver more high quality supported living accommodation then it will be a small step in the right direction.

It is deeply satisfying for us to assure parents of vulnerable adults that their children will be safe in their new homes.
This is why we do what we do. And we are only just getting started.
Will you join us on this journey?

– Daniel Mazure & Lyndon Dodd / Co-founders, Empowered Homes