Project Malachi is a vision for a new pop-up hostel in Ilford, East London. Led by The Salvation Army, Ilford, and supported by a sponsoring committee of senior, local faith leaders, Project Malachi is a radical new approach to entrenched rough sleeping, by creating a new kind of homelessness shelter. This innovative project is the first to target rough sleepers who have No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) in this way.
The integration of The Salvation Army's homelessness and social enterprise work with the life of the church community as being a huge asset. However, we are also aware that an additional site would provide the opportunity to expand the work. The site at Chadwick Road offers the possibility to develop a project that would be the first of its kind, tailored specifically to the needs in Ilford, but replicable in other parts of the country with a high number of NRPF rough sleepers. This project generates an income from Housing Benefit or Temporary Accommodation budgets, cross-subsidising people with NRPF.
We have begun explorations of different types of temporary structures, and a ‘shipping container’ structure would serve the purpose of accommodation and workshop to facilitate people:
- Getting into employment resulting in self sufficiency
- Reconnection to country of origin
- Gaining leave to remain / naturalisation thus becoming eligible for support in mainstream services
London Borough of Redbridge has agreed to make 1a Chadwick Road available to The Salvation Army on a 5-year lease. The building currently on the site is scheduled to be demolished in Summer 2017. This will provide the opportunity to use the space for a workshop and accommodation purposes. This will count as ‘meanwhile use’ prior to the Ilford town centre regeneration.
Significantly, this site on Chadwick Road is also the first place that The Salvation Army ever met when it came to Ilford on March 5th, 1886.