As many of you know, I have been covering numerous shifts to help the homeless people of Peterborough through a project called Peterborough Light Project, I received an update last week from Sue Hemsby, who organised the project and I thought I would share it with you all.
With the current media about homeless people in the arcade on Bridge Street and people being made homeless in my home area of Parnwell it is nice to see that good things are happening. As explained before, Peterborough Light Project isn’t just about offering shelter for the coldest months of the year – but it helps homeless people back on their feet.
Here is what has happened so far (I have taken names out to protect their identities);
Project Update:
The project is now in its 4th week and has been busy right from day one. We have so far offered 143 beds out of a possible 200 and have welcomed 20 different guests. We have seen 3 people that were homeless move on into more sustainable accommodation and we are currently hopeful that one more homeless person will soon have found his own room. We are thrilled to confirm one person that now has a room has also now found a job and has come to Church at Park Road where we hope to continue to see him when his work allows.
Other guests are all settling in well to our Night Shelter routine and are responding to the loving kindness that each of you show to them – it truly does make a difference. We have had a few guests whose needs were deemed too high for us to safely accommodate within the Winter Night Shelter and they have been moved out to link in with the SWEP programme where Peterborough City Council are continuing to work with them.
Our regular Touch Point meetings with the Council are going well and the Council and the New Haven are both working closely with us to ensure our guests move forward. Occasionally we have to come down quite harshly on those guests, who are not prepared to engage, but it is always done with love in our hearts and no animosity carried forward.
