A new £860,000 homeless assessment hub will open its doors next week, providing specialist support to those most in need.
The assessment hub will help vulnerable people avoid sleeping rough by providing a roof over their head, providing tailored support to help them rebuild their lives and support them to access the other vital services they need, such as support with finding employment and access to any health care they need.
People will stay at the service for a relatively short period of time, around 6 weeks, during which the intensive support they receive will help make them ready to move into the next stage of their housing journey en route to securing a permanent home of their own.
Named ‘Howard House’ in memory of Howard Derham, who tragically died while homeless in 2017, the centre is being run by experienced homelessness charity, The Salvation Army.
The hub will be part of the Island’s homelessness pathway and referral service and is a key part of the Isle of Wight Council’s drive to end rough sleeping.
Councillor Ian Stephens, who is responsible for housing needs, said:
“Howard House will provide a safe place from which individuals can start to rebuild and live their lives.
Article continues below this advertisement “These are people who need to be treated with dignity, care and respect, but they may have been overwhelmed with adverse events and circumstances happening in their lives.
“The new facility will help to focus provision around each individual person, which is the best way to understand their needs and to help set a path to permanent accommodation for them.”
The council has invested around £500,000 into the new centre, with a further £362,000 secured from the government.
The major refurbishment of the building — the former Barton Primary School — was undertaken by Island firm, Trevor Jones Contracting Ltd.
Matthew Smith, assistant regional manager for The Salvation Army’s Homelessness Services, said:
“We are pleased to be the provider of this new and innovative assessment hub where our focus will be on preventing rough sleeping and reducing homelessness.
“We have been working with the council and other agencies to tackle homelessness for a number of years. Having been part of the strategic planning for the new pathway on the Island to reduce homelessness, we are excited to see Howard House come to fruition.
“As well as providing a safe environment, we will work collaboratively with agencies on the Island, offering an individual approach to help people take the next step out of homelessness.”
lets face it….despite their good intentions, it will turn into a carbon copy of the doss house hostel that the sally army run in green street, ryde – which is full of argumentative, arrogant, drunks and junkies that have burnt every bridge they have with their poor attitudes and are now burdening the residents of green street with their presence.
Lets be honest, the vast majority of the ‘home less’ are home less because they are anti social and unwilling to live by the normal standards set in society… once again poor joe public picks up the bill to house these cretins.
Please can anybody tell me how many homeless there is on the I.O.W
All those people who think the homeless are almost all just ‘unfortunate victims’ should have one of them live in their home.
Like the UK’s influx the media keep much of the wrong doings as low key as is feasible to prevent even more backlash from the public.
Couldn’t agree more. What I’ve had to put up with from vile aggressive people! who for some reason always know loads more just like themselves who come around to back them up and if you try to get help from the authorities and people who are supposed to be there to ‘help’ people, they treat you like you are the aggressor and the thuggish types as though they are your ‘victims’ because they see them as “underprivileged”, if you point out that actually you grew up in more deprived circumstances then them, the do gooders hate you for it as it proves them wrong and gives less excuse for their beloved ‘vulnerables’.