Children in Need – of a decent, safe, home
YOUNG homeless people are the focus of this special episode of the tear-jerker that follows life-changing renovations.
Nick Knowles and co are in Blackburn and Darwen, one of the poorest boroughs in the country. Around 50 young people sleep rough every night in Blackburn – that’s more than 100,000 in the UK if you do the maths.
“They are sleeping in shop doorways, they’re sleeping in car parks, derelict buildings, under bridges or sofa surfing between friends and family members,” says Nick. “Either way, they’re all homeless. And they’re vulnerable.”
The plan is to transform a rundown church hall into accommodation and a support centre for Nightsafe, a charity which receives funding from BBC Children in Need and provides support to young people who are homeless or vulnerably housed.
Jan Larkin runs the charity which has already helped more than 14,500 young people.
She says: “We don’t just put a roof over their head. We look after their health and wellbeing and we engage with them.
“Homelessness could happen to anybody, any age, at any time.”
The team, drawing as usual on volunteer support from hundreds of local trades people, has just nine days to complete the build.
As ever, it’s emotional. Jan tells an anecdote which has stuck with her, about a homeless teen asking for a tub of salt – he just wanted to keep the slugs away while he slept under a canal bridge.
And the big reveal will leave viewers in floods.
Says the church’s reverend: “It’s a glimpse of heaven on Earth.”