Salisbury Trust for the Homeless go above and beyond

Salisbury Trust for the Homeless (STFH) is celebrating this week after exceeding its yearly target for helping those facing homelessness to successfully move into stable, long-term accommodation.

The local charity aimed to help 70% of their customers plan moves into housing association homes or other properties. They have overachieved their target with 79% (four out of five) of their customers successfully moving into independent living homes.

Project Lead, Ross Foster-Manning said, “At Salisbury Trust for the Homeless we support people who are either facing homelessness or are about to be faced with homelessness.

“We do our best to try and break the cycle which may be causing their homelessness by offering accommodation to people in Salisbury or those with a Wiltshire connection.

“We support our customers for six months to a year and within that, we support them with a personalised service by potentially engaging with mental health services, helping them to maximize their income if they can't go to work because of injuries or by helping them to claim disability benefits so that they have a stable income.”

After STFH has provided a personalised support plan to help people get back on their feet, they will also help people to find and secure long-term accommodation.

“We help identify all accommodation options available, whether that be through the social housing register or to private rentals.”

On achieving above their target, Ross said, “We are very proud because the hard work that goes into that is immense. It’s a credit to the team that when things aren't so good - we get those positive results.”

STFH work closely with other local agencies, which they say, have helped them beat their target.

Gordon Pardy, Head of Fundraising said, “We work very closely with the Salisbury Food Bank who support some of our customers at difficult times. We also have support from Salisbury Cathedral who provide food for us from very kind donations that they receive.

“The local community at Tesco provide crockery and toiletries and are very generous and accommodating with what we ask.”

The local charity doesn’t receive any local authority or central government grants and is therefore very much dependent on donations from people and businesses in Salisbury and South Wiltshire.

Gordon explained, “The work myself and the fundraising team do allows us to carry out our vital work. We sometimes receive sponsorship from local companies; we carry out street and supermarket collections; we put on fundraising events, like the summer garden party and we host concerts.

“The Salisbury Concert Band will be performing for us in January at the Salvation Army Chruch which will be a great fundraising event. We also receive out-of-the-blue donations from the public, which just shows their generosity and that they respect our work.”

If you or someone you know is facing homelessness, STFH offers a self-referral service.

“People can get in contact with us by emailing help@stfh.org.uk or call 01722 338510. Another route they can go is via the housing solutions team at Wilshire council,” said Ross.

For volunteer opportunities or to donate to Salisbury Trust for the Homeless, click here.