Brighton Housing Trust (BHT) has been awarded a £481,000 grant by the Big Lottery Fund.
The money is for BHT’s Accommodation for Work Project. The funding is for five years and comes from the Big Lottery’s Reaching Communities Programme.
It will enable the project to help homeless people to move off the streets into independent accommodation and employment.
BHT said: “The Accommodation for Work Project will widen its reach across the city by delivering a targeted training programme to local hostels to help them support their clients to secure and maintain work and through a series of best practice events to share the learning of the project with other providers.”
The Big Lottery Fund said: “Brighton Housing Trust’s Accommodation for Work Project provides housing and support for homeless people who want to work but are struggling with the devastating impact of homelessness.
“The only project of its kind in the UK, it offers a residential programme of work-focused support for homeless people who are working, volunteering or pursuing training.”
The scheme involved three homes, each housing six people, and it previously won £440,000 from the Big Lottery Fund.
Bernadette Lynch, project manager of the Accommodation for Work Project, said: “We are so pleased that the project can continue its work to support homeless people in the city to achieve their goals and reach their potential.
“We are really excited to have another five years of funding and to be in a position to launch our training programme which will benefit more working homeless people in the city.”
Big Lottery Fund deputy director Lyn Cole said: “Our Reaching Communities programme helps communities and people most in need and we are very pleased to make an award to this worthwhile project.”
Clients who have used the project spoke about their experience of the service they received from the Accommodation for Work Project.
Their comments included: “Without this service, I wouldn’t have a job, I wouldn’t have a qualification and I’d still be homeless.”
“Before the scheme I was stuck staying with friends and no means to move on. The project helped me get stable, establish work, and then find a flat. I’m not sure I could have done this otherwise.”
“This project provides a crucial service and helped me at exactly the right time and gave me exactly the support I needed.”
“When I came to BHT, mentally I wasn’t well. My life wasn’t worth anything. Now I feel I’ve achieved something and am much happier in my life. I’ve got a renewed optimism.”
