The West Midlands Mayor has said cutting homelessness is a top priority, in the week that a charity, church and business partnership saw the opening of Birmingham’s only permanent night shelter.
Andy Street attended the launch of Tabor House, which has opened in a Catholic parish property in the heart of Birmingham. An official count of rough sleepers a year ago found 55 people on the city streets, but charities fear the actual number is about 200.
Tabor House is being staffed overnight by volunteers. Fr Michael White, chair of Caritas in Birmingham Archdiocese, has been a key driver of the project, which has been three years in the making. The key emphasis was not just on taking rough sleepers off the streets but on helping them turn their lives around, he said. “It’s a massive problem in Birmingham but if the council wanted to get this off the ground it would cost a lot more money and be far more complex. As a voluntary agency, we are more efficient and we have been able to recruit over 100 volunteers.”
People will be offered a bed for three nights and then invited to stay for a month if they commit to mentoring and support. That, says Fr White, was a key issue in reassuring Birmingham City Council officials who took part in planning meetings.
He added that whilst night shelters have existed before, resistance to them developed for fear that they discourage rough sleepers from addressing underlying problems that led to them becoming homeless.
Cllr Sharon Thompson, the council’s ambassador for homelessness and rough sleeping, said: “The provision at Tabor House fits our strategic approach of providing space for people to acclimatise to living off the streets. We are working with the management team to make sure … people accessing Tabor House can learn about supported living to help them back into society.”
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