Southdown has been supporting vulnerable people in the South of England for nearly four decades.
The organisation began in 1972 as a small voluntary group providing housing for people using mental health services. The group had links with mental health charity MIND but remained small and local for more than fifteen years.
Everything changed in 1989 when the organisation (then called Brighton & Hove Area Group Housing Association) took on its first paid staff and began to expand. The client group was widened to include people with learning disabilities and new services were opened.
Renamed Southdown Housing Association in 1996, the organisation continued to grow and develop a wide range of innovative services for the local community. Its high quality housing and specialist support succeeded in giving vulnerable people more independence and greater choice in how they lived.
Today, Southdown has grown to become one of the largest voluntary sector employers in Sussex. Our many services are spread along the South coast from Chichester to Hastings, and inland to Crawley, Horsham and Lewes. Contracts with local authorities for East and West Sussex and Brighton and Hove and PCT's supply most of our income for support services.