About Us
Since 1972, we’ve been in Sussex, making a positive difference to the lives of people with mental health challenges, learning disabilities and those facing homelessness.
Over 50 years ago, community-based support began to replace long-term institutional care. A group of volunteers recognised the need for housing and personalised support to enable individuals to thrive within the community.
Today, we’re the largest not-for-profit provider of care, support, and housing in Sussex. We make a positive difference for over 11,000 people across 60 different services every year. We believe that no one should feel alone or without support. By understanding each person’s unique experiences, strengths, and potential, we support them to take meaningful steps towards a better life.
We also play an active and leading role to develop housing, care, and support across Sussex to improve access to services for those that need them.
Over the years, whilst we’ve developed what we do, our passion and purpose has remained constant.
Plans and Reports
We have robust plans in place to help us provide support for vulnerable people.
Our history
Brighton & Hove Area Group Housing Association
Southdown was established in 1972 by a group of dedicated volunteers who recognised and responded to the issues facing people with mental health challenges recently resettled in Brighton and Hove from long-stay hospital institutions. Not only did our founders provide good quality and stable housing (they fundraised to buy our first property in Brighton), but they also acknowledged the importance of ensuring that the individual’s social, physical, emotional and economic needs were met through the delivery of tailored support – enabling people to live well in the community. We remained a small volunteer-run organisation working in the Brighton & Hove area for more than fifteen years.
In 1989 we took on our first paid staff and began to expand our reach across Sussex. We also expanded the services we offered and began supporting people with learning disabilities too.
Southdown Housing Association
Renamed Southdown Housing Association in 1996, we continued to grow and develop a wide range of innovative services for the local community. Through high quality housing and specialist support we helped people gain more independence and greater choice in how they lived.
Southdown today
Today, we’ve grown to become one of the largest voluntary sector employers in Sussex, providing care, support and housing for over 11,000 people and employing over 1,000 employees each year.
Our services spread along the South coast from Chichester to Hastings, as well as inland to Crawley, Horsham, and Lewes. Most of our income comes from contracts with Local Authorities and Clinical Commissioning Groups for East and West Sussex and Brighton and Hove.
Five decades later, although we have significantly diversified the types of support delivered and increased the number of people supported, we remain fully committed and passionate to continue to put our founding principles and mission into practice within the Sussex communities where we work.
Celebrating 50 years of Southdown
In this short video, we asked colleagues to share their experiences of working at Southdown over the years.
