Staff from Solo Housing held a stall in Diss Market Place on Wednesday to mark World Homelessness and World Mental Health Day.
Staff from Solo Housing held a stall in Diss Market Place on Wednesday October 10 to mark World Homelessness and World Mental Health Day.
The stall was run by both staff and residents living in Solo Housing accommodation.
The aim of the stall was to raise awareness of Solo Housing services in the area and to launch the annual Christmas Gift appeal.
Each year Solo Housing collects essential items such as toiletries, warm socks, gloves, scarves, other essential items, along with treats such as chocolate to make up a gift box for each of the 100 residents living in Solo Housing supported accommodation. MRP Systems kindly donate decorated shoe boxes to enable each resident to receive a nice Christmas box.
Local companies support the appeal and donations are also received from members of the public in the local area.
Solo Housing provides 100 bed spaces of supported accommodation across South Norfolk, Breckland Babergh and Mid Suffolk.
Supported accommodation is intended for vulnerable single people who are either at risk of or are homeless, helping them to gain the skills to get back on their feet and sustain future accommodation. Residents in supported accommodation come from all walks of life, many will have personal challenges such as substance misuse, offending behaviour or poor mental health which they are keen to address.
Providing accommodation can be the first step in addressing these personal challenges.
Solo also provides a lodgings scheme which provides support to people who have a spare room and would like to take a lodger but may not know how to go about it.
CEO Carolyn Howell said: “At Solo Housing we are able to work with a wide range of single people who are either vulnerable and need support to rebuild their lives or those simply looking for somewhere affordable to stay. Many of our residents are isolated from friends or family, so it is nice to be able to provide a small gift box at Christmas, a time of year when isolation can be heightened. We are really encouraged by the amount of support we have had both from members of the public and local business and we are always pleased to talk to people about our work.”
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