Hastings homeless project welcomes £5,000 funding boost

The Snowflake Winter Night Shelter has been awarded £5,000 ‘Safer In Sussex’ funding from the county’s Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne.

Andrew Crighton, chair of trustees said: “This is vital funding for us and means we can continue to provide supervised overnight accommodation seven nights a week to homeless people who would otherwise sleep rough in Hastings and St Leonards during the extreme winter months. 

“This includes a warm bed, hospitality and engagement with willing volunteers to facilitate wellbeing and positive self-esteem, shelter from the winter weather, hot drinks and meals, and in liaison with specialist agencies, encouragement in accessing relevant longer term solutions to individual housing needs.

“The shelter has been able to extend its length of opening for 2016/2017, having opened on November 25 and closing on March 20, thanks to the generosity of many local people, schools, churches, community groups and businesses, and local funding bodies including the Safer in Sussex Fund; together with an increase in the number of volunteers who have come forward to give freely of their time. The project promotes community safety within the local community by contributing to the reduction of anti-social behaviour by giving shelter to those who would otherwise be rough sleeping or sleeping in ‘squats’.

“The night shelter is open for seven nights a week during the winter months, and having strict no alcohol and controlled drugs policies, guests are less likely to succumb to peer pressure which will assist them in tackling their dependencies which in turn will lead to a reduction in crime by those who need extra money to feed their dependencies.”

Katy Bourne said: “This fund is about helping local community projects make Sussex safer and that’s exactly what the Snowflake Winter Night Shelter is doing.

“Since launching the Safer in Sussex funding scheme in December 2013, I have made over £1m available to more than 200 local crime reduction and community safety initiatives. The scheme is making a real difference to communities across Sussex.”

She added: “I will be following the progress of the Snowflake Winter Night Shelter closely over the coming months.”

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