A gift of home for the homeless
Stars like George Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio back charity of ‘nest houses’ to help the have-nots in Edinburgh.
Edinburgh: A charity backed by celebrities including George Clooney and Leonardo Di Caprio has opened a village devoted entirely to homeless people in Edinburgh.
Social Bite Village comprises 10 twobedroom huts, each fitted with a combined lounge and kitchen, to help 20 homeless people at a time transition into mainstream housing.
The prefabricated “nest houses” have been built on the Granton waterfront, with stunning views over the River Forth and a community centre for residents to socialise.
Each house is painted in a different pastel colour and surrounded by flowers, designed to bring people into a welcoming community.
Josh Littlejohn, cofounder of Social Bite, said: “At the moment, if you’re homeless you either sleep rough, stay in a night shelter or go to a homeless hostel or bed and breakfast.
“These types of accommodation are really unsupported, marginalising and stigmatising. They put people into a negative trajectory.
“We wanted to try to develop a different model of housing homeless people – one that is a really beautiful community environment, where people receive lots of support.”
Social Bite runs a chain of sandwich shops across Scotland which employs homeless people and serves food to disadvantaged people, the general public and occasionally celebrities.
“A couple of years ago George Clooney popped in to our humble sandwich shop, which became the focus for global news, which was a mad experience,” said Littlejohn.
“Surreally, 12 months later Leonardo DiCaprio had lunch in one of our restaurants. Recently, we had a visit from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, which helps the fundraising and to keep the momentum going.”
Last December, around 8,000 people slept in a freezing park in Edinburgh to raise money for the charity, entertained by musicians Liam Gallagher, Amy MacDonald, Deacon Blue and Frightened Rabbit.
Rev Ewan Aitken, chief executive of the Edinburgh Cyrenians charity, which will be supporting the village residents, said: “Edinburgh has a significant challenge with homelessness, partly because of the distinct lack of housing and particularly affordable housing, but there is also a group of people who face quite extreme destitution.”
The community atmosphere is designed to break the spiral of destitution that lands people on the streets, often as a result of child hood abuse which leads to behavioural problems, crime and imprisonment.
Sonny Murray, 38, from Glasgow, was helped to reintegrate into society by Social Bite after a prison spell.
“The council thought I had abandoned my tenancy, so I returned to a locked door. All my possessions were dumped, so I ended up on the streets for four months,” he said.
“The village feels homely and the houses are quite close together, so I would imagine that it will be sociable with everybody living here together. I think it will be amazing.” — AFP