Helping to tackle homelessness

As it’s World Homeless Day today (10 October) we thought we’d share an easy way we can all help those who sleep rough – and also tell you a little bit about what Northwards is doing to help people without a home.

Big Change Manchester

One of the ways you can help people in Manchester sleeping on the streets is by donating to ‘Big Change Manchester’. Big Change makes sure your money goes directly towards helping people experiencing homelessness, supporting them to get off and stay off the streets.

This video, narrated by Elbow’s Guy Garvey, will tell you all about it:

Donate to Big Change here

What Northwards is doing…

In 2018/19, 30% of all the properties we re-let went to someone living in temporary or supported housing. This might have been because they were homeless or because they needed some extra help to get back on their feet for a short period of time.

As one of the members of the Greater Manchester Homes Partnership, we also helped 20 people with a history of rough sleeping to find a new home. The partnership brings together over a dozen of the region’s housing providers alongside three organisations with decades of experience working with rough sleepers: Shelter, Great Places and The Brick. You can find out more about it here: https://www.gmhomespartnership.org/.

Finding and keeping a home

As much as tackling homelessness is about helping people to find a home, it’s also very much about helping them to keep one too. And we’ve got a lot of people here who work to do exactly that, such as Sam and Nicki (pictured), our New Tenancy Support Coordinators. They work with some of Northwards’ new tenants who may have been living on the streets, young people leaving care or adults who have been homeless. Their role is vital in helping people settle into their new home.

Sam and Nicki are pictured above with Gaynor from Tesco in Cheetham Hill. The store kindly donated some goods to help some of our most vulnerable tenants back in spring.