Supported Housing Conference

Fraser joined Commonweal Housing in 2024, having started his career in the International Development sector. He is responsible for ensuring our research and housing pilots reach the correct audience – whether that be our peers in the sector, or local or national authorities.

Shahi Islam is Homes England’s Director of Affordable Housing responsible for delivering the Affordable Homes Programme. Shahi has been at Homes England since 2013, serving in various leadership positions to support the management and delivery of a number of major capital and revenue programmes. With over 20 years in the sector, Shahi has extensive leadership and management experience in housing working in roles covering policy, strategy and programmes. Prior to the Agency he worked at the Greater London Authority leading on housing investment policy and strategy.

Lee is the Director of Operations for Riverside’s Care & Support function. The Riverside Group are a large national Registered Provider of social housing in England and Scotland, and one of the largest providers of supported housing in England. His role covers a broad range of services, including veterans, homelessness, Ofsted services, Mental Health and learning disability services, older people’s services, CQC registered extra care, and managed agents. This covers 16,000 customers, 12,500 units of accommodation, 1,800 colleagues, and an annual turnover of £191m.

He has also played a key role in advising Government on a range of sector issues, including Covid guidance for supported housing, The Fairer Renting Bill, Regulatory Oversight (Supported Housing) Act and the subsequent Supported Housing Regulations Consultation, The Review of the Experiences of LGBT Veterans who Served During the Ban, and was a member of the Social Housing White Paper Professionalisation Review Working Group.

He is currently a Member of the Homeless Link National Advisory Council and Regulatory Advisory Board, and the Co-Chair of the CIH Homelessness Policy group.

Charlotte is a Partner in the Social Housing arm of our Real Estate team. She has extensive experience working with Registered Providers, NHS bodies, local authorities, and with other care and support organisations. She has particular expertise in development work (including planning gain and management areas, as well as construction and ancillary matters, both on greenfield and regeneration sites) as well as working with sheltered, supported housing and extra care providers.

Charlotte also advises on non-contentious housing management matters including tenancy agreements, support contacts and handbooks. She is also Chair of Winckworth Sherwood’s CSR Committee.

Suki Kandola brings over two decades of experience in improving outcomes for vulnerable residents in the Housing and Homelessness sector, gained through her work in both Local Government and the charity sector. This extensive background has given her a deep understanding of the complex challenges faced by individuals experiencing homelessness.

She currently leads the Supported Housing Improvement Programme at Wolverhampton Council, a pioneering initiative aimed at enhancing the quality of support services, improving property standards, and ensuring value for money across the sector.

Under Suki’s strategic leadership, a multidisciplinary team—including Revenues and Benefits, Homelessness, Adult Social Care, and Environmental Health—has delivered impactful outcomes through collaborative working with Supported Housing Providers. Her ability to drive partnership-based improvements has been central to the programme’s success.

The team’s dedicated efforts, under Suki’s guidance, have led to a combined saving and expenditure avoidance of £5 million over the past two years, underscoring the effectiveness of a coordinated, holistic approach to supported housing. Suki brings a wealth of knowledge, a strong strategic vision, and a genuine passion for social impact—qualities that continue to make a meaningful difference to the lives of vulnerable residents across Wolverhampton.

Samantha (Sam) Shimmon is Assistant Director for Housing and Health at Cambridge City Council. Sam is accountable for: managing council housing, preventing and reducing homelessness and rough sleeping, and the Council’s health and wellbeing agenda particularly focused on the wider determinants of health.

Sam has over 20 years of experience in the housing sector, working for both private registered providers as well as local authorities. She has a wealth of housing management experience, as well as transformation projects in other areas such as repairs and maintenance, asset management and digital.

Sam has experience of working with the social housing regulator on regulatory issues at both Cambridge City council and her former employer East Suffolk council relating to the rent and consumer standards. Sam has recently led on Cambridge City Council’s Regulatory Inspection achieving a C2 compliant grading.

Joanne is Director of Housing and Regeneration at LB Enfield and co-chair of the London Housing Directors Network. She has worked in housing across the UK for central, regional, and local government, for housing associations and a national social justice charity driving transformation and the delivery of better outcomes for people, places, and the planet. At Enfield she leads a large-scale housing, business and employment led regeneration agenda. Place keeping for the borough and the levelling up of the three wards of Edmonton which has multiple disadvantages. Enfield is also co-lead Borough for the London Council’s pan London Climate Change programme for warmer and greener homes through housing retrofit.

Carolyn is Director of Lending at Charity Bank. She joined Charity Bank in 2005 having previously worked for a European Bank in the city, where she established and managed their social housing loan book, growing it to over £1bn. Carolyn is a trustee of two Almshouses and a Director of Almshouse Consortium Ltd. She is Chair of Postcode Lottery Innovation Trust as well Maidstone Grammar School for Girls Development Trust.

Dave is an experienced leader, having worked in care and support services for 15 years in organisations’ across the country. After starting out as a Support Worker for St Mungo’s in London, Dave has worked in a variety of roles, including on innovative projects such as the pilots for No Second Night Out and the European Ending Homelessness Campaign.

Dave is passionate about service improvement and delivering quality services for customers and has led projects to further embed positive psychological approaches throughout care and support at Riverside.

In his current role as Assistant Director of Operations Dave is responsible for all of Riverside’s supported housing, floating support and retirement living services nationally, including those for young people and those experiencing homelessness. Dave has been a trustee for a learning disabilities charity and now sits on the boards of Whitehaven Foyer and Church Homeless Charity.

Siân is Chief Executive of Andrews Charitable Trust, a grant-making charity that wholly owns Andrews Property Group. With a career-long commitment to social justice, she has led a major strategic shift at ACT to focus on tackling housing-related poverty, modernising the relationship between the charity and its commercial subsidiary to maximise social impact and sustainability.

Under Siân’s leadership, ACT supports innovative housing and homelessness charities and has moved into direct delivery through Establish, its first housing project. Establish provides high-quality, affordable move-on housing for young people, working in partnership with Andrews Property Group, local youth homelessness charities, and local authorities. Siân is a strong advocate for cross-sector collaboration, drawing on earlier experience leading international social development programmes in Africa and Asia, and a background in public relations, including running the press office for SportAid.

I am the Homeless Services Director for St Martins, having begun my career in 2001 as a volunteer with the street outreach team while completing a dissertation project as part of my BA Hons degree. During these 24yrs I have delivered a range of services for St Martins, developing new projects and services that offer solutions to end rough sleeping.

I am passionate about ending rough sleeping, I am focussed on a housing led/first response to ending homelessness, providing a home for life and separating it from support. I work closely with strategic partners to ensure the safe, comprehensive, and successful move in this direction, taking services away from the dominant reward model that exists within the network of supported housing providers.

I am the Deputy Director for homeless services at St Martins, my career started in 2010 when I joined as a volunteer at the training and development centre, under one roof. Throughout my time with St Martins I have had a variety of roles, from delivering frontline support through to operational delivery and strategic oversight.

I’m dedicated to ensuring our services are run with a trauma informed approach, with the people we support being at the centre of any change. I’m proud to be able to develop services and accommodation to ensure that it is right for some of the most vulnerable in our community. Ending homelessness is so much more than accommodation, that’s why at St Martins we are more than a home for the homeless.

Brings 35 years of experience in affordable housing, local government, and the third sector.  He is a member of the Senior Leadership Team at Abbeyfield Living Society which operates in 9 countries and 4 continents and oversees growth, stock retention, and strategic partnerships with Homes England, Greater London Authority, and local Commissioners.  Abdul has extensive sector wide experience and in previous roles was responsible for coordinating and representing to boards on regulatory engagement, assessment of performance and investment delivery.  He Chaired the National Housing Federation’s Older Person Housing Group (OPHG) who collectively own and manage 260,000 homes for older people.  His non-executive director roles have strengthened governance and sustainability across multiple housing associations, demonstrating a deep commitment to delivering quality homes and thriving communities.

Candida Dutiro is a Board Member at Red Kite Community Housing, championing tenant voice and meaningful resident engagement in governance and service delivery.

With an MSc in Clinical Leadership and almost two decades working within the National Health Services (NHS), she brings extensive experience in strategic improvement, safeguarding, and inclusive practice. A passionate advocate for resident empowerment, Candida contributes to national conversations on engagement and inclusion.

She was awarded Women in Housing Board/Committee Member of the Year (2024) in recognition of her impact in the housing sector.

Fraser joined Commonweal Housing in 2024, having started his career in the International Development sector. He is responsible for ensuring our research and housing pilots reach the correct audience – whether that be our peers in the sector, or local or national authorities.