Steve Douglas CBE, who was a founding member and advisor to the Kerslake Commission, sadly died suddenly on 8th May 2022. Steve brought knowledge and expertise from a career spanning more than 25 years in the housing sector, and was a driving force for change. He was deeply committed to ensuring that the positive lessons of Everyone In and the principles of joint working become the norm and part of everyday practice for all those agencies and individuals working to end homelessness. This work will be continued by the Kerslake Commission’s Advisory Board.
Lord Bob Kerslake, Chair of the Kerslake Commission, said: “Steve brought so much to the world of housing of which this Commission was just one example. He brought great knowledge and understanding of the issues, a passion to learn and improve, and above all a human touch that brought people with the changes that needed to be made. He will be enormously missed by everyone who has been involved in the Commission. We owe it to Steve to see through the changes that we agreed to in the report”.
Steve joined St Mungo’s as Chief Executive on 1 July, 2020. Prior to joining St Mungo’s he was Group Chief Executive of Altair, a housing and regeneration consultancy group advising housing associations as well as central, regional and local government. Prior to that he held Director and Chief Executive positions in a number of housing related roles, which also included funding provision of homelessness services. He was Chief Executive of the Housing Corporation and Corporate Director of Neighbourhoods and Regeneration for the London Borough of Hackney which included responsibilities in relation to homelessness and temporary accommodation. Steve was also Chair of One Housing Group, who run Arlington, the homeless centre in Camden.
He led or supported many initiatives and activities including:
- First Chief Executive role at Spitalfields community based HA – based in East London
- Chief Executive of ASRA between 1996-2001 – a registered housing association, specialising in homes and services for Asian communities in London
- Overseeing £8.4bn investment programme, delivering 155,000 homes whilst Chief Executive at the Housing Corporation and regulating England’s 1,500 housing associations
- Vice Chair and Board Member at Amicus Horizon and then Optivo Housing Group for nine years
- Executive Regeneration Director at LB Hackney in the run up to Olympics 2012
- One of four founding Partners at Altair, the leading housing and regeneration consultancy
- Working closely with L&Q, Optivo and the BME London to set up the Leadership 2025 initiative – with the purpose of empowering senior BME professionals to become leaders of the future
- Steve was awarded a CBE in the 2019 Queen’s honours list for services to housing
