Offers of help for a new homeless shelter at a former police building in Hollingbury have been pouring in, from offers to paint murals to a joint proposal to manage it.
A working group has been set up to work out how to run an eight-week pop-up hostel at Sussex House in Crowhurst Road, Hollingbury, which it’s estimated will cost £30,000.
Brighton Housing Trust and St Mungo’s are putting together a joint proposal to manage it, including support to help people move away from the streets for good.
And another plan is being put together to raise the necessary money to do it – with an appeal for people with fundraising experience or money to donate to get in touch.
Cllr Tom Druitt said: “We are planning an eight week pilot project and have identified that we will need approximately £30,000 to prepare and operate the shelter over that period.
“We are calling on anyone with fundraising experience or funds available to support the project to get in touch! We will use the experience gained from the pilot to enable us to open pop-up shelters whenever a building becomes available, and we are recording everything so we can make a document available online to help people in other parts of the country do something similar in their communities.”
Other offers of help include
- a group of artists have offered to decorate the space with murals
- a businessman from Bexhill has offered tiles to make the kitchen look nice
- local residents have continued to offer their time and skills, as well as fridges, freezers and cookers so the shelter can feed people
- M&S Food at Hollingbury has offered food that is still in-date but nearing it’s sell-by date
- Dex Allen Fire Safety has offered to do a fire risk assessment on the building and ensure it has the fire safety controls it needs
- The Big Lemon and Brighton & Hove Buses have offered free bus travel for people to access the shelter
The building has been offered up by Simon Lambor of Matsim Properties, who responded to a request by members of Brighton and Hove City Council to help following a successful motion by Green councillors calling for the council to open up some of its vacant properties so that rough sleepers would have somewhere safe and warm to stay.
Could we have an account of how £30,000 is needed please?
How do we donate?
How do we volunteer to help?
Murals can be enervating and very, very stressful to look at. The city is full of them and only the really excellent bear looking at and then not for long periods of time! They are the opposite of tranquil or peaceful. They are mostly outsize and wildly energetic. They offer cacophony where homeless people require recovery.
Homeless people in there will hopefully have some choice about having more visually peaceful areas to escape to so they can recover equilibrium after their ordeals on the street.
Artists who are good with light would be helpful. Lighting is so influential on mood and wellbeing.
Here, in High Wycombe, we have a laundette owner offering to wash clothes for the homeless. Now that is a positive idea – any in the Brighton area?