Housing with heart – how a volunteer group responded to Edinburgh’s housing emergency

Meet the Edinburgh Refugee Sponsorship Circle – a Community Sponsorship group based in the heart of Scotland’s capital. Since welcoming their first family in 2021, this volunteer-led group has developed a reputation for bold thinking, practical support, and deep community connections. We spoke with Fae, one of the core organisers, about their pioneering approach to refugee resettlement — including their radical new housing initiative, grounded in solidarity and sustainability.

This short introduction kicks off a three-part series where we’ll be getting stuck into their story over the coming weeks. In part two, we’ll explore how they developed a pioneering housing trust to provide long-term security in the middle of a housing emergency. And in part three, we’ll look at what true community welcome looks like — and why place, people and power-sharing matter so deeply to their vision.

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What was the initial spark behind the housing initiative? And, like, why did you decide to take this route now?

The origin of the housing issue 

We welcomed a family in 2021, and they’ve become part of our community, and they’ve become super independent really fast, and they’re part of all our lives now.

We were made aware, I think two years ago, that the family’s landlords were needing to sell the house. The landlords themselves are by now quite close to the family,  and to us, so I think it really wasn’t what they would have preferred, and in fact they’ve extended the lease already for a year beyond when they wanted to sell it, just to give the family and us more time to figure out what to do, but it was just something that they couldn’t put off any further.

Lack of priority access via the council

We knew the council were not likely to give the family the same access to priority as other families resettled directly through the council. We knew that they were at a disadvantage and that the process to try and access social housing, would ultimately mean an extended time in temporary accommodation. Potentially very, very unsuitable temporary accommodation.

Risks of temporary accommodation

The council called a housing emergency in Edinburgh, over a year ago, so we were well aware that calling upon the council would mean a pretty big upheaval. We knew the reality was that there wouldn’t really be a chance, for a sturdy, reliable, social housing for maybe six, seven, or eight, years. The family would be in temporary housing. It could be a B&B, for all that time. We needed to see what Plan B and Plan C’s we could come up with. Looking for alternative private rentals would be one option, but we were looking for options that would provide the most housing security, the most stable idea for the future for the family as possible. Remember this a family that has experienced a lot of upheaval, and their fears around housing are probably even more significant for them than for others, because there has been so much upheaval and moving in their past.

Looking at what other groups had done

We looked around and saw that other Community Sponsorship groups had purchased properties as well. And so, we just started thinking that it could be an option. And immediately, after just having one or two conversations, in my networks with people, like, literally just brainstorming out loud, there were people that wanted to put quite significant amount of money for it. And we just ran with it.