Last night a significant moment in the history of social housing occurred. Goldsmith Street in Norwich became the first social housing project to win the RIBA’s Stirling Prize, the country’s most prestigious architecture award. The judges described Goldsmith Street as ‘a modest masterpiece’, while Guardian architecture and design critic Oliver Wainwright said: ‘This year’s choice sends a clear message that, despite government cuts, it is eminently possible for brave councils to take the initiative and build proper social housing.’… Read more
About Alastair Ball
Shelter Lancashire: our specialist debt and benefits advice service
Over the last few years, demand for housing advice has dramatically risen in Lancashire. Three years ago, Shelter’s Blackburn based service was seeing around eight people a day, now they see around 68 people a day. This year, on average, 10 people experiencing homelessness come to Shelter Lancashire every week looking for advice, compared to one or two in the years before.
We are currently the only housing specialist in Lancashire and we’ve only seen the hardships that people who … Read more
Will you keep a good thing going?
Paddy turned his life around, going from homelessness and addiction to working for Shelter. This happened because of Shelter’s peer mentoring programme. Now we need your help to keep a good thing going, by supporting this programme so that more people can help themselves to get off the street.
Paddy was living on the streets of Birmingham for five years and had a serious addiction to heroin and alcohol. Now he works for Shelter helping people with the problems he … Read more
9-year-old Lovisa to cycle 100 miles to fight homelessness
9-year-old Lovisa is doing her bit to fight homelessness with her very own Home2Shelter bike ride, an 100 mile sponsored cycle from her home in Great Blakenham, Suffolk, to Shelter’s London headquarters.
Lovisa is passionate about cycling and the freedom it gives her and will be accompanied on her bike ride by her Dad, Jamie.
‘Having seen the challenges met by those facing homelessness, Lovisa felt lucky to have a home, and was moved to do something to help,’ Jamie … Read more
George Clarke’s rallying cry for more social housing
This week, Channel 4 showed the latest film from George Clarke, architect, TV presenter and Shelter ambassador. George Clarke’s Council Housing Scandal is a rallying cry for everyone who believes Britain desperately needs more social housing.
At its core, the documentary is an indictment of the terrible state of housing in this country. Clarke visits people living in temporary accommodation and sees the awful conditions they are forced to live in. He’s visibly moved by families forced into cramped flats … Read more
Shelter Dorset: the power of a makeover
Volunteers for Shelter Dorset have been hard at work doing hub and home makeovers. In the most recent home makeover, volunteers helped a family who’d been living in temporary accommodation settle into their new home by doing decorating and DIY.
‘It makes such a big difference to our service users,’ hub manager Kate Parker said. ‘It’s about making the house a home.’
The makeover is thanks to B&Q employees, who volunteer for Shelter as part of our corporate partnership. 14 … Read more
Partnerships are key for Shelter Norwich
Saturday 6 July was Norwich’s Lord Mayor’s Celebration, a parade through centre of Norwich that included dancers, musicians, performers, floats and puppets. This year, pride of place at the front of the procession was taken by the Norwich Financial Inclusion Consortium, a group of charities that includes Shelter Norwich.
The Norwich Financial Inclusion Consortium led the parade because they were named the Lord Mayor and Sheriff’s Civic Charity of the Year, due to the consortium’s work helping people with a … Read more
DSS discrimination means renters are punished for their circumstances
Kyrstyna and her husband, Geoff, had been homeowners. But when they lost their jobs due to redundancy, they were forced to go back to renting privately in their 50s.
Finding somewhere to rent was tough. Like many people receiving housing benefit, Krystyna and Geoff faced DSS discrimination and struggled to find a place to live. In the end, they were forced to move all the way from the West Midlands to Cornwall just to find somewhere that would accept them … Read more
Passenger donates all profits from his new album to Shelter
There are many people who support Shelter in different ways – and among those is multi-award winning and platinum selling singer-songwriter Passenger. In an amazing gesture, 100% of the profits from his new album, Sometimes It’s Something, Sometimes It’s Nothing At All, will be donated to Shelter. At Passenger’s request, the proceeds will be used to help fund our vital Family Support Services.
On the day of release, Passenger – aka Mike Rosenberg – dropped by our flagship charity boutique … Read more
Shelter Thames Valley: spotlight on our new Hub
Shelter’s Thames Valley office launched as our newest hub on 1 April, and we marked the occasion with a launch party and open day. ‘We threw it open to our service users, who came along and were absolutely fantastic, and to other partner agencies,’ service manager Jackqueline Hauxwell said. ‘We ensured that people could meet and mingle with the team.’
The Thames Valley Hub is located in the Council for Voluntary Services (CVS) Building at 27 Church Street, Slough. This … Read more
Run, bake or DJ – there are so many ways to raise money for Shelter
From bake sales to breakdancing, cycling to scaling skyscrapers, there are so many unique ways to fundraise for Shelter. Take DJs Doug, Tom, Charlotte and Jamie, who decided the best way to support us was to put on a night of awesome retro tunes.
The group of friends came up with club night Maneater – 00s Trash Club, a celebration of the turn of the millennium featuring classics like Overload by the Sugababes, the freakily-good Clint Eastwood by Gorillaz, … Read more
Our lack of social housing is failing those in desperate need
At Shelter, we see many people who’ve had bad experiences renting privately, but Tom’s experiences are exceptionally bad. First, his landlord blocked off access to the boiler and left the thermostat set so low that the heating wouldn’t come on unless it was freezing cold. Then he started coming to the property on a daily basis, going into his tenants’ rooms without their permission.
Things got worse when there was a gas leak in the property. When Tom informed his … Read more