PLANS FOR THE NEXT YEAR AND BEYOND

Kingston Churches Winter Night Shelter

It has been recognised for some time that Kingston lacks a temporary night shelter.   This is a safe place of refuge for rough sleepers who cannot immediately gain access to a more established night shelter or hostel.  KCAH, after consultation with their client group and a core group of local church leaders, decided to do something about

this !  Thus a pilot night shelter scheme was set up to run throughout the month of February 2009, using church halls for accommodation and run solely by volunteers.

KCAH runs a Hostel Placement Service but invariably those who present themselves as homeless at our door will not be accepted into temporary accommodation unless they are in payment of benefits.  This is because the hostels/night shelters need to generate an income and can only do so if their clients are entitled to Housing Benefit.  If they have no entitlement, they will face a much longer period of time having to sleep on the streets

The pilot night shelter gave KCAH the much needed ‘breathing space’ to provide clients with a place to stay whilst still being able to work with them to overcome any welfare benefit issues or to deal with any other issues preventing the person from gaining access to recognised shelters. 

Thus February saw seven key churches make their halls available for a set night of the week providing warmth, shelter, food and a friendly welcome to those who had nowhere else to stay.  In that month, 22 ‘guests’ used the shelter.  Before the scheme ended, 12 were found somewhere else to stay by KCAH - a huge success. The first shelter opened on the night the heavy snows fell from the skies.  Protecting our guests from the inclement weather of that month probably meant we also helped to save lives.

A BIG THANK YOU to all the churches who participated in whichever way they could – by providing their facilities, volunteers (you were all brilliant!), food, financial support and through prayer.

NOW TO THE FUTURE!  For this coming winter, we want to run a similar scheme to cover a three-month period.  This will require far more co-ordination, organisation and an even larger bank of volunteers than last time.  The seven churches who offered their halls all want to participate again.  However, I shall need another seven churches to do the same.  Currently I am applying for funding to pay for a co-ordinator to oversee the whole scheme as this is a project that requires attention to detail so that everything can run smoothly.

This is an incredibly worthwhile scheme which fulfils so many things.  Whilst providing shelter for the homeless of Kingston, it also helps to break down perceptions for those involved in terms of who a homeless person is (it can happen to anyone !) as well as enabling the church community to put its faith into action.

Ultimately, a permanent night shelter in Kingston is an aspiration that we can be looking towards.

The Mayor’s Charity

Enclosed with this Action Magazine is a leaflet explaining how The Worshipful the Mayor Councillor Ian MacDonald, wishes to raise money this year during his year as Mayor of Kingston.  Councillor MacDonald is passionate about tackling the problem of homelessness in the borough.  Thus he aims to reach out to the local community, Churches and local businesses included, and challenge them to help organisations like KCAH to deal with the problem.  If the Mayor can raise the money to realise goals like having a shower facility and a rent deposit scheme in Kingston that single homeless people can have access to, this will be a fantastic thing. 

It is also befitting that the Mayor will be raising money for the Street Pastors with whom KCAH have a close relationship and who do such good work within Kingston town centre.

Making KCAH financially Self-Sufficient

We are incredibly keen to make the Charity more financially.  Every year it is a struggle to raise the money to keep afloat.  Currently we are using our reserves to finance all our staff positions and this is unsustainable.  The only reason why we have been able to operate without severely reducing our services in the last few years is because of legacies and generous donations from the Churches and private individuals.

However, this is almost a haphazard way of surviving.  KCAH needs to have the security of being able to generate an annual income to cover its capital and expenditure costs.  Therefore we are exploring the idea of opening a shop that can produce a turnover to cover the operations of the Charity.  At the same time, a shop can offer work opportunities for some of our service-users who are ready to embrace the working world once more.

I am therefore interested in meeting up with anyone who has retail experience or business acumen and can offer their experience and expertise to KCAH in setting up such an operation.  We are really starting from a blank piece of paper at this stage – even to point of asking what area of retail should we be looking to focus on? 

Please contact me on 020 8255 2439 if you are the person that I need to speak to - or you know who I should be speaking to!

Matt Hatton

Operational Director