Riverside ECHG - New funding will enhance support to homeless people

16 October 2009

Homeless people will be the beneficiaries of over £15 million of funding for the redevelopment of three ECHG supported housing schemes, after the organization put in successful funding bids to the Homes & Communities Agency (HCA). The recent planning approvals for ECHG’s schemes in Hull and in Catterick North Yorkshire, mean that they now join Middlesbrough in benefiting from around £5 million of funding each for developing innovative and enhanced services for homeless people. “This is a significant achievement for Riverside who will be building the schemes and ECHG who will be running them -

but it’s an even more important one for the many thousands of people who will benefit from the services these schemes will provide over the coming years,” said Derek Caren, ECHG’s Managing Director.“The services will be able to accommodate over 130 people at any one time. They will be wide-ranging, covering support for single homeless ex-servicemen, programmes for people who are wanting to step away from chaotic drugs and alcohol use, as well as those who are ready to engage with effective training and employment programmes.”

The schemes will also provide wider benefits to their local communities, offering the public and residents access to on-site Community Cafes, IT suites, employment services, gyms and much more.

Additionally, residents of current ECHG schemes in these areas are being given important opportunities to gain valuable construction skills by training and working on the schemes’ construction.

Gary* was a resident at ECHG’s original housing scheme in Middlesbrough and is now helping to build the new scheme. He said: “I was homeless for over a year and came to the original hostel where I got a bed and support to get my life back together. But it was clear that the hostel needed updating so when I heard that there was some construction training available on the redevelopment of the new building I jumped at it!

“I’ve already finished a course on Site Safety and now I’m getting stuck in and learning lots of new skills that are going to set me up for the future.”

Notes to editors:

ECHG is the award-winning specialist provider of sheltered and supported housing within The Riverside Group. Riverside is one of the UK’s leading social housing and regeneration organisations in the UK, owning or managing around 50,000 properties from Carlisle to Kent. Riverside is the current holder of the national Social Landlord of the Year.

*Name has been changed to protect Gary’s identity.