Who we help
Who we help
Each year, Anchor House welcomes up to 180 single homeless adults, aged 20-60 years, through its doors who have had nowhere to live. We also provide training, education and support services to more than 1000 community members each year.
Located in Newham, with the highest single homelessness population in the UK, people arrive at Anchor House in varying degrees of anxiety, despair, depression and shock.
During 2009-10, Newham had over 36,000 households on the Housing Register (applying for a place in social housing) and around 3,500 households in temporary accommodation. Skills shortages are a major problem and significantly higher than across London as a whole.
Our residents do not come straight off the street, but are referred to us by other agencies (e.g. the local authority, the Probationary service, other homeless agencies, and so on).
Many of our residents have experienced varying levels of social exclusion, for some this means lacking any family support. Experiencing this kind of isolation can lead into a spiral of abuse in many cases through alcohol and drugs. Anchor House offers people who have become deeply isolated through homelessness, mental health issues, other illness or disability a route to independence either though employment or other sustainable long term support.
Case Study One: One of our long-term residents was abused from the age of 8 years old, stopped going to school from the age of 10, was taking alcohol and drugs from 10 years old and has been in prison over 30 times with 107 offences. This case study is at the extreme end but illustrates the level of need that we deal with.
Case Study Two: We recently re-housed a young woman who had been kidnapped and used as a sex slave by the Eritrean army. Again, helping her cope with those issues was a slow and painstaking process but today she has achieved independent living and is now enrolled on a Foundation Degree course in Interior Design.
