The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Lives turned around for city’s rough sleepers
“If the Garden House was not here I do not want to think where I would have been.”
A short time ago dad of three Kevin was living on the streets after a relationship breakdown. Now, he is on the up and hoping to shortly find new employment.
“I’m becoming the old me,” he declares while enjoying a warm drink.
Kevin, who did not wish to give his surname, is one of many rough sleepers (or “guests”) who have found support from Garden House, a scheme run by Light Project Peterborough. The charity also operates a Winter Night Shelter in the city.
Garden House is tucked away within the Cathedral Precincts, but word is spreading of the wide range of daytime support being offered to help rough sleepers transform their lives.
Such has been the success, that a six month lease from last October has now been extended for two years.
Steven Pettican from Light Project Peterborough said: “There’s been amazing work by everybody on the ground.
“We have up to 30 volunteers here in the house. They are good people from across the city - primarily from the Christian community, but there are people of different faiths, or no faiths.
“We are all working together in a welcoming environment.”
The project works as a hub for the city’s Safer Off The Streets partnership, which involves 17 different organisations working together.
Funding has come in part through more than £7,000 of donations from a contactless card donation card window placed outside Argo Lounge in St Peter’s Arcade, next to Bridge Street.
‘Guests’ at Garden House are able to see GPs, hairdressers and chiropodists, and they can get support with health checks, debt counselling, job searching, CV writing, benefit claims or referrals to a food bank. They can also enjoy art therapy, or activities in the garden.
City council outreach support workers, including Rebecca Jones, are also present to offer their support.
Rebecca said: “It’s a really good balance between a statutory service and working with charity partners.
“It targets people new to the street and helps them get off really quickly.”
She explained that there have been numerous success stories, with support transforming the lives of people from those who have left prison, are battling addiction or, in the case of Kevin, have been left on the streets after the end of a relationship.