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East Cleveland Youth Housing Trust

ECYH Trust is a charity that helps young people aged 16-25 years old, by providing high quality affordable housing and work experience in building skills.

Background

Working on renovations

East Cleveland Youth Housing Trust formed in 2000, following a study into young people’s housing and training needs by Tees Valley Rural Community Council (TVRCC), Community Campus 87 and Coatham House. It revealed that young people generally wanted to live and work near their homes, but in some cases were unable to do so.

We acquired our first property in 2000. The owner of the property could not afford to renovate it and the Trust had no money, so we reached an agreement with the proprietor to lease the property for a peppercorn rent of £200per annum for 6 years; in return for this we would renovate the property and let it to young people at an affordable rate.

Properties

With continued support from Community Campus 87 and TVRCC, and with financial help from charitable trusts, Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) , Redcar & Cleveland Council and the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund, the Trust has grown and, thanks to the low property prices in  East Cleveland, has  been able to purchase its own properties We have now acquired 10 properties in the East Cleveland area, one of which we have recently acquired and are currently renovating.

Thus the Trust is able to meets its objectives by both leasing and purchasing privately owned properties that need full renovation work and which enable it to provide building related skills training for young people in the East Cleveland area. We then let the properties to young people on a six-month short hold tenancy agreement.

Housing & Renovation

Our renovations are funded through a number of charitable trusts such as; The Barbour Trust, The Beatrice Lang Trust, The Bernard Sunley Charitable Trust  to name a few. We spend on average £10.000 - £15.000 on renovations.

Our team of supervisors and young people do most of the renovation works; we do occasionally have to get skilled workmen in to do some specialist work. Whilst with us young people gain training on site safety passport, CSCS Card, Health & Safety in the work place, Manual Handling, Fire Awareness, First Aid, Customer Care. And of course all aspects of renovation plumbing plastering, rendering, etc. They can also access NVQs. We also provide team building activities such as; outward bound weekends. Quad biking, go Karting & BBQ’s.

Once renovated our properties are then let to single or young couples who are unable to afford the private sector rents, we have a part time tenant support worker who offers support with setting up utility, budgeting, life skills, anything that will enable them to succeed in their tenancy. Last year we housed 17 young people and we currently have 11 tenants in our properties. However the number increases year after year and we hope it will continue to grow.

Community Works

Another aspect of the trust is the social enterprise working with a variety of community groups, such as village halls, churches & Youth Centres to provide high quality building services these include disabled access, painting & decorating, ground works, gardening & landscaping. We currently work with over 30 community & voluntary sector groups. Our customer base increases year upon year and are now considering setting up a trading arm to strengthen our position, this will enable us to offer more training opportunities to young people.

www.ecyhtrust.com Tel: 01287 644044