Housing project makes its long-awaited move

THE island has taken another positive step towards reducing youth homelessness. The NCH Guernsey Youth Housing Project has made its long-awaited move to its new premises at 1, St James' Street, St Peter Port. The building will provide office space for staff, a drop-in and assessment centre and emergency housing.

'These facilities will give us a better opportunity to improve the conditions for young homeless people in the island,' said project manager Shane de Carteret.

The Guernsey branch of the NCH had to leave its old base at 3, Havilland Street, at the end of February, but the new site was not ready. For the last nine months it has been based at the Youth Centre in Brock Road.

'It was a great opportunity to work more closely with the staff at the Youth Centre and we have built some important relationships. But as well as a lack of space, ultimately, we are dealing with different children and that brought a few problems.'

The NCH focuses on providing help for youngsters between the ages of 16 and 18. The Youth Centre's work is mainly with younger children while St Julian's House provides care for older people.

But three weeks ago, the NCH was given the go-ahead to move and now the refurbishment of the building is well under way.

'We've waited for these sorts of facilities for about three years and now we feel as though we've got over the last hurdle,' said Mr de Carteret.

On the first floor there will be office space, a dining room, a training kitchen, a meeting/lounge area and an Internet cafe.

Above will be smaller rooms where staff will work directly with individuals to try to sort out problems quickly. There will also be emergency accommodation.

Mr de Carteret said that the rooms available would only be for real emergencies.

'We do not want to stigmatise or institutionalise youngsters. We want them to feel as though this is a temporary blip and not the start of a career being homeless,' he said.

But NCH will not be fully operational at the new site for another three months, when the refurbishment has been completed and staff recruited.

NCH Guernsey wants four project managers and one administrator.

One project manager will work as a drugs, alcohol and sexual health expert, another as a support accommodation expert, a third will run the seven new training flats at 17, Havilland Street, and one will run night-stops.

The charity is asking people to help out with the night-stops. It needs volunteers who have a room to spare and are willing to put a youngster up for one night at short notice.

'I hope that the new facilities will enable us to manage crises much better. But also I want to prevent youngsters getting into trouble in the first place,' said Mr de Carteret.

'The more people who know that we are here, the more we will get communication from families.

'We will then be able to work in a

controlled way before reaching a crisis point.'