A property developer has sold property worth over £120 million buying property and selling it to his own charity, which also failed to prevent the deaths of dozens of its tenants over a two year period.
MySpace Housing Solutions claimed tens of millions of pounds from the housing benefits system to provide homes for vulnerable people, including adults with learning difficulties, recovering from substance abuse or fleeing domestic violence. The charity claimed directly from the housing benefit system on behalf of the people it homed.
Most of MySpace’s work takes places across the north of England.
Properties were bought by Paul O’Rourke’s company, Enabling Homes, and sold the same day at a massive profit to MySpace, which he helped set up. In one deal in November 2019, a block of ten flats in Goole were purchased for £800,000 then sold for £1.58 million within 24 hours.
Once the deal was struck, MySpace signed a lease of twenty years during which it would house vulnerable adults – paid for by the taxpayer.
Housing benefit is just one of the perks of the system. Charities supplying supported housing are also able to install and run monitored CCTV.
Only housing associations and not for profit organisations are allowed to take on such tenants, who are supposed to receive support to enable them to live independently in a system known as exempt accommodation.
The sector has grown substantially in the last ten years and at the same time attracted accusations of exploitation.
keep working on this one:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62497015
also see saved bit in word drafts