As Head of Homelessness at Caritas Salford the "just one thing" that we are focused on in Manchester is tackling homelessness, as part of our wider work to address poverty in our communities. Our Cornerstone Day Centre in Hulme provides a homeless prevention service for over 150 people a week. We work in partnership with a range of advice and health services to ensure we provide outcomes-focused, wrap-around support to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. At our Morning Star project next door, we provide supported accommodation for 20 single homeless men who would otherwise be housed in unsupported B+B accommodation.
Like many voluntary sector organisations we try to meet immediate needs but also to use the knowledge and experience we gain from doing this work to advocate for change. We are calling for the resources needed to end rough sleeping, to end the use of unsupported B+B accommodation, to invest more in homeless prevention work, and for the Government to improve the regulation of the private rented sector, and fund the building of more social housing.
As we head into the winter and festive season, we are more focused than ever on making sure everyone in Manchester has a secure, warm home but we also want to enable people to fulfil their dreams. We're enabling the Manchester public to do Just One Thing too, as described in this short animation, gifted to us by Manchester-based creative studio, Doodledo as part of their charitable commitment to help others.
Will you 'Bee There' this Christmas | Caritas Salford
We are proud to be working in a city where we have lots of voluntary sector organisations, backed by generous Mancunians, focused on addressing homelessness, who work closely together to deliver fantastic services - working together we can end homelessness in Manchester.