New homeless centre aims to change lives in Southend
It will house fifty people
An Essex-based charity is tackling homelessness in Southend with the building of a brand new, 50 bed accommodation centre for people who were sleeping rough in the city.
Bluebird, located on Southchurch Avenue, will provide supported accommodation to people who are nearing the end of their time with HARP, and will serve as a final stopping-off point for people almost ready to live independently as part of the local community.
Matthew Pettitt will manage the project when it opens in September. He's looking forward to welcoming people: "Me and the team are very excited to get into Bluebird, get it open and get people in.
"It's very different to anything we've ever done before, it's such an exciting project.
"We're providing a community within a community where everyone's got a safe place to be, a safe place to live.
"I don't think anywhere else in Southend will be offering something like what we will be."
As well as accommodation, Bluebird will also be home to a Learning For Life educational centre, which will offer residents the chance to take up training opportunities to help them adjust towards independence: "Sometimes people feel excluded from the community and they don't always want to re-enter communities straight away, it takes some time.
"The Bluebird project is a community within a community - everyone has similar issues and they're all previously homeless, so whilst they're developing their own community at Bluebird, it's preparing them to re-enter into society."
He's pleased to be able to create new homes amidst the uncertainty caused by a cost of living crisis: "I honestly don't know what the future brings, but fortunately, we've created fifty more bed spaces to help ease the situation."
To fund the development, HARP have launched a new appeal and are hoping to raise £175,000.
Nicky Bowling, who helped develop the property, explains where the money will go: "Basically it's to fund the Learning for Life studio, and then it's about fitting out the rooms, furnishing them and the communal areas, both indoors and out.
"There's always extra funding that we need for these kind of things and this will all help get us over that last hump."
She says they chose to call the centre Bluebird because of what the bird represents: "We were trying to think of what it encompassed, because it's about home, it's about protection, something that's safe, but it's also about flying out and on.
"We thought a bluebird really encompassed that ethos."