Surplus Federal Real Property for Homelessness Initiative (SFRPHI) - Overcoming Externalisation of Benefits
Example of:
How the use of financial management and accounting can help improve sustainability.
Key points:
• SFRPHI buys property from Government departments at market rates and transfers them at nominal cost to homelessness organisations.
• Government departments with property to dispose of would not accrue the wider benefits of alleviating homelessness and this is a barrier to them acting alone.
• By working at a cross-government level, SFRPHI is able to make decisions based on the wider costs and benefits of reducing homelessness.
SFRPHI is a key programme of Canada's National Homelessness Initiative. The programme buys suitable surplus properties or land from Government departments at market value, and transfers them at nominal cost to not-for-profit community organisations and provincial and municipal governments/agencies. The properties are used to alleviate and prevent homelessness.
For government bodies to give away surplus properties or land to be turned into homelessness services and affordable housing may often be, not just an enlightened thing to do, but also value for money to the public sector as a whole. Reducing homelessness improves the physical and mental wellbeing of the neediest individuals, thereby reducing their call on a variety of public services. While these gains would often outweigh the costs for the public sector as a whole, this would not be the case for the individual body with the property to dispose of.
SFRPHI's arrangements help to overcome this barrier by creating a central fund to buy surplus real properties from departments at full market rates. This enables the disposing department to create external benefits but not to suffer internal costs. Meanwhile the programme that is incurring the costs is directly accruing benefits in terms of meeting its given objectives. In this way government becomes joined up – essentially a "win-win" arrangement. As of 2003, 49 properties worth £4 million were approved for transfer to help with homelessness and affordable housing projects. Between 2003 and 2006 SFRPHI will assist in the transformation of surplus property worth a further £4 million.