Action for Children and Maison Saint Pierre have today, World Homeless Day, unveiled their plans for the new St Peter Port flats.
Action For Children service manager Aaron Davies said the flats would relieve a lot of the pressure the charity faced in meeting the needs of homeless young people on the island.
While numbers of young people without a permanent home accessing the charity’s services this year has remained similar to last year, he said that this was still about 40% above the level the charity was dealing with before Covid.
‘These flats will ensure that most of the demand we face is met. Honestly, we could fill them all tomorrow if they could be built that quickly.’
The accommodation is being created following recommendations in a 2022 report on homelessness by the Guernsey Community Foundation, with noted that young people not in education, employment, or training, who were estranged from their families, were at particularly at risk of homelessness.
In response, Maison Saint Pierre, which sponsored the report, purchased the property last year.
The ground floor is already occupied by Action for Children, which will become Maison St Pierre’s tenant, while the top two floors will be converted into seven units of accommodation.
Five will be used by Action for Children as part of its Youth Housing Project to accommodate young people at risk of homelessness and teach them independent living skills to become responsible tenants.
The sixth unit will be used as emergency housing in circumstances where Action for Children’s Nightstop service is unavailable, while the seventh unit will be used as an independent living training suite. In time it is hoped both units will be used as extra training flats.
The project is being funded by a multi-year grant of more than £200,000 from the Guernsey Community Foundation, Lloyds Bank Foundation for the Channel Islands, and the Social Investment Fund.
Action for Children will be responsible for maintaining the units, and a member of staff will be on-call 24 hours a day.
‘Once tenants have learned to live independently and have the necessary skills, they will then move into social housing or private rented accommodation,’ Mr Davies said. Usually young people in its flats stay for between six months and a year.
He was hopeful that the flats would provide a long-term solution to addressing homelessness among the island’s young people.
‘Providing that foundation and those basic living skills are so important as they set people up for later life. I’m confident that we will be able to do a lot more of that with these flats.’
Action for Children is recruiting for extra staff to help support its new tenants. More details can be found by visiting Action for Children’s job website.
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