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When you hear the phrase 'Jersey's housing problem,' perhaps the first issue which comes to mind is cost, maybe a young couple trying to buy their first home.
That is clearly a serious issue. For some, the problem is different, they might be struggling to find anywhere at all to call 'home.'
At the end of every year, Express speaks to local charities about what their Christmas wishes are for the year ahead.
Today we are speaking to homelessness charity, the Sanctuary Trust...
"2022 has been another challenging year for Sanctuary Trust, as it has been for so many. However, looking back on the year, there has been a number of positive and significant achievements, of which we are hugely proud.
If we were to pick just three highlights, they would be our public awareness campaign on World Homeless Day; the opening of our town shelter and our record-breaking annual Sleep Out.
Pictured: Frank Walker, Abigail Nance and Sarah Tumelty handing out A Jersey Issue Too in town on World Homeless Day.
One of our key objectives is to raise awareness about homelessness in the island. This year, to mark World Homeless Day on 10th October, we did just that with a multi-faceted campaign that literally stopped members of the public in their tracks. Overnight thought-provoking posters popped up around the town centre with emotive messages about homelessness and during the day we handed out copies of our own publication A Jersey Issue Too, a nod to the Big Issue.
On the same day we also officially opened our New Street facility. The property provides a further six beds, so we can now accommodate up to 30 men at any one time. While opening the doors of our third shelter is a milestone, it very clearly highlights the island’s growing homelessness problem.
Pictured: Frank Walker and Sarah Tumelty at the opening of opened the new New Street accommodation facility.
Then just last month we held our annual Sleep Out at Pier Road car park which resulted in triple the number of people taking part and more than £50,000 raised – that is more than all of our previous sleep outs combined. Overwhelmed with the community response to the event, we cannot give enough thanks to those islanders who slept out in the cold for the night, others who provided their services and support, and the many more who donated."
"Probably the most significant challenges we faced during the year were adequately resourcing our team and managing the growing demand for our services.
In the past two years we have seen a 65% increase in the number of men seeking our support and our shelter occupancy levels have been averaging 97%. This means we have very sadly had to turn away men who have been in dire need; a deeply regrettable position to find ourselves in, even with the opening of our new facility. We fear this will only worsen as the island navigates what is predicted to be a protracted cost of living crisis.
Pictured: La Moye Primary School pupils preparing soup to feed those taking part in the charity's annual Sleep Out.
For the first half of the year, we were without a fundraiser, but thankfully it’s been a relatively positive end to 2022 with the funds raised from our Sleep Out. We are also feeling optimistic about our fundraising plans for the future.
We try not to mention the 'C-Word' but unquestionably Covid still had an impact in early 2022, delaying the refurbishment works on our shelters and disrupting staffing cover. May 2023 see the back of the pandemic and its knock-on effect...
Thankfully we are ending 2022 in better shape than we started it, but we will be far from complacent about the year ahead."
"First wish...we get another three wishes...
Then we would wish to eradicate homelessness in the island. Sadly, we know this is not realistically achievable, but we, and the other local homeless charities, will continue to work together to tackle the issue with the resources we have.
Our next wish would be to end the hardship, cost of living crisis and the housing issues currently facing our community. We are heartened to see the efforts being made by the government and supporting agencies to prioritise this and we hope momentum continues into the New Year.
Pictured: The charity's World Homeless Day campaign that literally stopped members of the public in their tracks with thought-provoking posters about homelessness in the Town Centre.
Our final wish...like all charities, we will be hoping to secure sufficient funding next year so we can continue to operate and provide our much-needed services. With the addition of our third shelter and our growing outreach service, coupled with the spike in inflation, our operating costs have, as expected, increased.
As we do not receive any government funding and rely solely on donations, fundraising and grants, our third wish would be that the amazing public generosity continues and islanders do not lose sight of the homeless crisis on their doorstep."
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