Since 1999, Riverside ECHG, a market leader in providing innovative support services for people in need, has been working with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to develop services that will help reduce the risk of rough sleeping and homelessness amongst ex-service leavers who are single.
In doing so Riverside ECHG has opened the Single Persons Accommodation Centre for the Ex Services (SPACES) located within the Resettlement Centre at Catterick Garrison. In Richmond, North Yorkshire we have The Galleries, an accommodation project for single service leavers.
The overall aims and objectives of the project are to assist single Service Leavers to secure appropriate accommodation as they leave the Armed Forces. In so doing we will be reducing the likelihood of them becoming homeless or rough sleepers. Single service leavers can be vulnerable to homelessness as a result of a combination of factors: having no home to return to after service, little understanding of how to secure rented accommodation and current legislation, little or no experience of budgeting and setting up home.
We have a service based at the Military Corrective Training Centre (MCTC), in Colchester, and Mike Jackson House, a new purpose built accommodation project, located in Aldershot, which provides accommodation and specialist support for twenty-five ex-servicemen and women, helping them to make the leap back into civilian life. For more information on these services please visit www.spaces.org.uk.
