Anchor House launched their social media #homefullness campaign this week during Homelessness and Poverty Action Week 2012. People are being asked to share their own definition of the word “homefullness”. Here ITN news presenter and Anchor House Patron Julie Etchingham shares her thoughts.

For more information about the #homefullness campaign, please click here.

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Anchor House, a residential and life-skills centre for single homeless people in Canning Town, East London, launched its ‘homefullness’ campaign on the 29th January in support of Homeless Sunday with the aid of its patrons, including Barbara Windsor, the Rt Hon Ann Widdecombe and ITV’s Julie Etchingham.

Anchor House director, Keith Fernett, says people will be asked to share their thoughts on what ‘homefullness’ means to them via twitter, facebook and YouTube. This could include posting comments, blogs, videos, photos or even songs.

“The aim of the campaign is to get people to think about what homelessness is not, and most often people say a lot more than just a roof over your head,” Mr Fernett said.

“And that is exactly what we are trying to do here at Anchor House – give people more than just a bed but a second chance at life through education, training, rehabilitation and on-going support.

“We support more than 200 people each year towards achieving ‘homefullness’ by addressing the root causes of their homelessness and we are very successful. We attract up to 2,500 visitors each quarter, but we need to improve our facilities and services in order to cater for increasing levels of homelessness.

“Last year homelessness rose by 13 percent and our waiting list for new residents is by the hundreds.”

As part of the campaign which ends in March, a live twitter Q&A will take place every Friday, where people can chat to Anchor House’s homeless residents. All twitter postings should include the hashtag #homefullness and @anchor_house. Facebook postings must be done via www.facebook.com/anchorhouseuk.

People will also be encouraged to donate towards Anchor House’s £9.3m Home and Hope Appeal, which aims to raise much needed funds to redevelop its 50-year-old centre – providing new training facilities, a training restaurant, and 25 new move-on flats – aimed at breaking the cycle of homelessness.

Donations can be made via www.anchorhouseuk.org  calling 0207 476 6062 or by texting the word HOPE to the number 70300 to give £3 or texting the   word ROOM to the number 70300 to give £3 each month.

To watch a film on the Home and Hope Appeal: http://youtu.be/NkuEkFrMluI

This month we launched a text giving service as part of our Homeless Sunday Campaign.

People can text the word HOPE to the number 70300 to give £3.

Or if people want to provide regular contributions they can text the word ROOM to the number 70300 to give £3 each month.

All money raised will go towards our Home and Hope Appeal, which aims to re-develop our premises – providing training facilities, a training restaurant, and 25 new move-on flats – aimed at increasing our services and refurbishing our 50-year-old centre to meet the increasing demands of homelessness.

Donations will be deducted from the donors mobile phone account (it doesn’t matter what carrier they use) and it costs £3 plus their standard network rate for one text message.

Anchor House will receive 100% of the donation. Donors may unsubscribe at any time by texting the word STOP to 70300 or SKIP to skip a monthly payment.

Few tourists find their way to the borough of Newham in London’s East End, though that will change in 2012 when the Olympic games arrive. Tucked between Tower Hamlets and the Thames, Newham is a poor place, the second most deprived local authority in England. Its people have long been diverse and transient, many of them immigrants who came to escape persecution, or to work in its docks and factories, and left when they could. Today only about a third of Newham’s residents are white Britons, and almost one in three residents has moved in since 2007. High Street North in East Ham is a dizzying melange of South Asian fabrics, Polish stores, Africans clustering outside telecoms shops and room-for-rent notices in Tamil.

Given the low levels of income and high levels of churn, it is no surprise that housing is a particular problem in Newham. The borough has a roughly ten-year wait for public council housing. There is high demand for private-rented homes, which account for about one-third of Newham’s stock of housing. Despite the economic slump, rents are rising by about 6-7% a year. Yet many of the properties are scandalously inadequate.

One such is in Lathom Road. The blue garage door in a street of two-storey terraced houses gives no indication that people rather than cars are housed within. Access to living space totalling at most six metres by four, all of them visibly damp, is through a dilapidated lavatory. A small frosted window above a rickety strip of kitchen gives what little natural light there is. The double bed takes up most of the rest of the floor, with a table jammed next to it holding a laptop and a printer.

On these machines Shaheen Akhter Hamid, a university lecturer in her native Bangladesh and in Malaysia, produced 1,000 flyers to push under neighbouring doors, vainly advertising her services as a tutor. Mrs Hamid and her half-British husband moved to England this year to be near his elderly mother. They agreed to pay £350 ($547) a month for the garage, plus electricity, and handed over £1,100. Within 15 days everything was broken, they say—shower, toilet, oven. The landlord neither fixed the appliances nor returned their money when they found another place to live. Newham council inspected the property and deemed it unfit. On December 9th the landlord issued an eviction notice.

Others are even unluckier. Among Newham’s horror stories is the small house in Forest Gate where inspectors found 32 people living last summer (another trip to the area on December 13th revealed 11 people sharing a single room). A commercial refrigerator in Romford Road was housing two. “Where you have lots of desperate people there are lots of opportunistic crooks,” says Toby Lloyd, director of policy at Shelter, a charity.

Newham’s housing problems are extreme. But the borough also signals a bigger, and growing, problem. Throughout Britain, private landlords are absorbing all the pressure in the market at a time when council housing is harder to get, not many homes are being built and fewer people can raise the money to buy a home. In 2010 the private-rental sector provided 17% of all accommodation in England, up from 9% in 2000. Things are likely to get rougher as central-government cuts to housing subsidies come into full effect next year. Other welfare reforms too will probably push people from the pricier parts of London into places like Newham.

The borough is cracking down on rogue landlords. Officials have started bringing cases under the Proceeds of Crime Act, designed for use against drug dealers and the like, which allows stiffer penalties including prison sentences. Five cases have gone all the way, with the biggest recovery to date over £62,000 (the council gets to keep less than half). There are 45 cases in the works, and Newham is out looking for more. Scrutinising aerial photographs for signs of inhabited outbuildings, its gumshoes have inspected 13,000 properties since October. Another section of town will be overhauled in January.

Like other local authorities, Newham wants to use planning rules to restrict sharply the conversion of family homes to “houses in multiple occupation”. The results of a consultation on the matter are due to be presented in January. It is also consulting on setting up mandatory licensing of all private landlords throughout the borough. If this goes ahead, it will be the first such scheme in England.

No room at the inn

For Sir Robin Wales, Newham’s mayor, these moves are part of a bigger plan. Newham has an opportunity, thanks partly to money pouring in before the Olympics, to become a place where people put down roots. This means making sure there is decent housing (as well as jobs) available. As for what happens to people who lose their homes, however appalling those may be, “that is not my responsibility,” he says. “All we can do is squeeze the supply here until a reasonable number of people are living in reasonable accommodation.”

Is Newham right to throw the book at private landlords? Some argue that basic accommodation fills a need. Some young male migrants choose rock-bottom properties in order to save money. Others point out that the sector attracts rogue tenants as well as rogue landlords. “There are multiple examples of sharp practice on both sides,” says Julie Rugg of York University, the author of a study commissioned by the previous government. Landlords complain about rent arrears, damage to property and anti-social behaviour.

A third argument is that landlords can sort out problems on their own. The poor condition of many private rental properties reflects their age; standards are rising as newer homes come on the market. Over-regulation in the past arguably led to the dwindling of rented accommodation, which was in no one’s interests. The government has made clear that it wants the private-rented sector to expand, and as far as possible to regulate itself.

Considered from inside the Hamids’ mouldy garage, these arguments are not persuasive. The property is not so much cheap as degrading. It is not just able-bodied young Poles or Tamils who are moving into garden sheds and boxrooms; over 1m families with children are now in privately rented properties in England, a good many of them substandard. And less than a fifth of landlords have so far joined a voluntary accreditation scheme in Newham.

It is precisely because of the soaring demand for cheap private housing that Newham and other like-minded boroughs need to crack down on offending landlords. They should be tough on themselves, too. Local authorities are large and frequent purchasers in the privately-rented sector—Newham spends about £120m a year subsidising rents for poor people—and should make sure they inspect the properties they send people to. When demand outstrips supply against a background of profound housing need, tough action is required. Especially when the Olympic games are bringing millions of visitors to the doorstep.

Photo courtesy of TheUglySweaterShop.com

Dreading the thought of opening a Christmas present you don’t like?

Don’t fret – give the gift to someone who really needs it!

This year 35,680 households in the UK were deemed homeless – without food, shelter and support.

But you can help by donating your unwanted Christmas presents to us – Anchor House– a nationally acclaimed homeless charity.

We will sell your unwanted item on eBay and 100% of the proceeds will go to sponsoring a room for a homeless person. 

Alternatively, you could sell your items yourself and choose our charity to receive a donation from the proceeds. 

The less ugly Christmas presents out there – the more chances our homeless residents have at turning their lives around. 

Or if you feel especially generous this Christmas – why not spread some cheer and simply donate.

Send your unwanted items to:
Anchor House
Fundraising
81 Barking Road
London E16 4HB 

The students from London’s School of Economics will endure eight hours on the street as part of a campaign run by the Student Union’s Islamic Society. The aim is to raise awareness for the issue of homelessness along with funds for Anchor House.

Kawsar Zaman, 21, a final year LSE law student and one of the key organisers behind the campaign said the ‘Sleep Out’ is a campaign devised collectively to bring the issue of homelessness right to the forefront of the student and academic community at the LSE.

“When we think of homelessness our imaginations often take us to the streets of Africa or Asia. But homelessness is a sad reality in the UK as much as any other part of the world which is all too conveniently brushed under the carpet. ,” Mr Zaman said.

“We have long term homeless, but also people who are increasingly struggling to make ends meet because of the economic downturn. Many families are facing repossession of their homes.”

Mr Zaman said the students were inspired to take action after attending Anchor House’s Appeal Launch last month with Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, Chairman of the East London Mosque and patron of the charity.

“We found that Anchor House not only gives people a roof over their heads but empowers them with new skills and rehabilitation to take back their lives,” he said.

“They don’t just talk – they act. So we are appealing to all – to dig deep and support Anchor House.”

All money raised will go towards Anchor House’s £9.3 million Home and Hope Appeal to redevelop and improve the services of its nationally acclaimed residential life-skills centre in Canning Town.

People can donate online at www.justgiving.com/Sleepingout.

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Anchor House Patron Lord Maurice Glasman talks about the Home and Hope Appeal launch and his passion for helping communities out of poverty.

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Chairmain of the East London Mosque, Dr Muhammad Bari MBE and Anchor House Patron talks about the importance of helping the underpriviledged and supporting the Home and Hope Appeal.

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Anchor House Patron John Bird MBE, founder of the Big Issue, talks about why he supports Anchor House and it’s Home and Hope Appeal.

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