Snowflake Winter Night Shelter 2019/20

The Snowflake Winter Night Shelter will return again for 2019/20, providing supervised overnight accommodation to homeless people who would otherwise be sleeping rough in Hastings & St Leonards from the evening of Friday 29th of November 2019 to the morning of Wednesday 18th of March 2020. Users of the service are referred by various local organisations including Hastings Borough Council Housing Department, the Seaview Project, St John Ambulance Homeless Service, and other agencies. They are calling for volunteers to help run the service during the coming winter months (website).

Registration and Training Evenings will take place at the following venues, starting at 6.30pm and lasting approximately 2 hours (see website for further updates).

Sunday 3rd of November at St Matthew's Church Centre, Silverhill TN37 6PD.

Tuesday 5th of November at St Mary, Star of the Sea Church Hall, Hastings Old Town TN34 3BD.

Wednesday 6th of November at Wellington Square Baptist Church, Hastings Town Centre TN34 1PN.

Thursday 7th of November at Chapel Park Community Centre Hall, St Leonards TN37 6HR.

Saturday 9th of November at Christ Church, Blacklands & St Andrew Hall, Laton Road TN34 2ES.

Friday 16th of November at St John the Evangelist Church Hall, Brittany Road, Upper St Leonards TN38 0RD.

As suggested above, check the website for any further sessions and updates.

Night Shelter

Further to my previous blog about the Snowflake Winter Night Shelter, Hastings Borough Council has now announced that, as the cold weather is continuing, its Night Shelter will remain open until Monday 4th February 2019, please let people you see who lack accommodation know, see notice reproduced below: 

"Wednesday (30th), Thursday (31st), Sunday (3rd) – the night shelter will be located in the Crypt area at Christ Church, London Road;

Friday (1st), Saturday (2nd) - the night shelter will be located in Christ Church Parish Centre (locate in the Old School Building on the opposite side of Christ Church Courtyard to the Crypt). 

Guests need to arrive between 8pm and 10pm. People will not be able to access the shelter after 10pm. Guests will then need to leave the shelter at 8am the following morning. 

Any individuals who need to use the night shelter are asked to come to the Community Contact Centre at Hastings Town Hall to register. The contact centre’s opening hours are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: 8.30am to 5pm, Wednesday : 10.00am to 5pm and Friday: 8.30am to 4.30pm people can also register at the night shelter each evening between 8pm and 10pm. We’d encourage people to present as early as possible.

Dogs may be brought to the shelter, and cages will be provided. No alcohol or other substances should be brought to the shelter. A member of the housing options team will open the shelter and security will be provided throughout the night.

We will consider other temporary accommodation options for any individuals who are we are not able to accommodate in the night shelter."

Hastings Soup Kitchens and Workhouses...

Having recently written about Hastings Foodbank (blog) and the Snowflake Winter Night Shelter (blog) I then thought about similar facilities for poorer people in Hastings over 100 years ago, how can things still be so desperate, haven't we developed as a caring nation, the 5th/6th richest country in the World?!? For example, this shop in Queens Road (above) used to be a soup kitchen, as shown in a photograph of this building taken in 1909 that is in the Hastings Edition of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell (Wordsworth Editions, 2014).

And the building that was the Hastings Old Town Workhouse is still in George Street (Hastings Chronicle), also with a rather nicer usage now!

Since 1909 Britain has fought in 2 World Wars and many others around the world, however, in 1945 Britain adopted the fight against the "5 Evils" described by Beveridge, and there should thus be freedom from "Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness."* The Attlee Labour governments began that fight against the 5 evils despite Britain being in considerable debt following World War 2. The NHS was created, Full Employment was a target, the Education system became improved and available to children and young adults of all classes, Unemployment, Sickness and Welfare Benefits and Pensions were improved, and a great wave of building decent homes for the public was started, indeed, the number of council houses built was surpassed by Conservative governments during the 1950s. By the early 1960s there was virtual full employment, even in the late 1970s you could walk into a job which was offered to you on the spot.

How did we allow the return of the evils, poverty and homelessness continuing to worsen despite Britain being a much richer country now than it was in 1945? Hastings is the 7th worst town in the country for unemployment (nomis). Life expectancy in Britain is lower than in other developed countries and has stopped rising, indeed, lowered in some areas of the country (BBC). Furthermore, fear of the USA helping to further privatise the NHS as part of a trade deal when we leave the EU, this may well increase the influence of the evil of Disease.

Makes me feel rather sad, and angry!


* Derek Fraser, The Evolution of the British Welfare State, Macmillan 2nd edition 1984.

Snowflake Night Shelter

I recently wrote a blog about the Snowflake Night Shelter in a blog, and they have recently written on their facebook page that they have had up to seven vacancies overnight. They ask that people pass on details to homeless people, many thanks!

Also, I noticed on their page that there will be another Volunteer Recruitment Meeting at the Salvation Army Citadel in St Andrews Square TN34 1SR at 10-12.00 on Saturday 5th January 2019.

Snowflake Winter Night Shelter....

Once again, the Snowflake Winter Night Shelter will be providing supervised overnight accommodation to homeless people who would otherwise be sleeping rough in Hastings and St Leonards from Friday the 30th of November 2018 to the morning of the 20th of March 2019. Users of this service are referred by various local organisations including the Seaview Project, St John Ambulance Homeless Service, Hastings Borough Council, and other agencies such as the Police.

The leaflet distributed recently suggests there would still be another volunteer registration meeting later this month, but the website disagrees; though I presume they would be very happy to welcome more people willing to volunteer. 

For further information about being a volunteer go to their website or to their facebook page.

Hastings folk forever generous!

Congratulations to the people of Hastings, and Hastings Old Town (facebook page) and the Spirit of Christmas, who organised the raffle, for raising £2,024.85 for charity. The 3 chosen charities each received £674.95, being the Snowflake Night Shelter (see previous blog), M-K Cats & Dogs Trust, and the RNLI Hastings Lifeboat.

Excellent work!

Snowflake Night Shelter is seeking volunteers.

 

The Snowflake Winter Night Shelter provides supervised overnight accommodation to homeless people who would otherwise be sleeping rough in Hastings and St Leonards from the end of November to the middle of March. Users of this service are referred by various local organisations including the Seaview Project, St John Ambulance Homeless Service, Police and Hastings Borough Council. They are now calling for volunteers to help run the service during the winter months. 

Volunteer registration meetings have been going on for a while now, but the next two evening meetings start at 7.30pm on Wednesday 25th October at Wellington Square Baptist Church and on Friday 27th October at St John the Evangelist Hall, St Leonards. The next daytime meeting will be on Saturday 28th October at 10.30am at Sussex Coast College, Hastings Station Approach. For further information and details of all meetings go to the website.

For further information about being a volunteer go to this page.