KPS Suits on the Streets

Member Article

Housing partnership helps to raise awareness of homelessness

Members of staff from Keepmoat Property Services and their client, Accent Foundation were on hand last week to support a local event, which helps to raise awareness of rough sleeping.

Six members of staff from Keepmoat Property Services and six members of staff from Accent Foundation participated in the Suits on the Streets Sleep Out event, which was held at the Arches, near Forster Square train station in Bradford last Thursday evening (10th October).

The event was organised by Bradford charity Inn Churches, which provides emergency accommodation for homeless people, in a bid to highlight the scale of the problem in the city and raise money for the charity.

Inn Churches began three years ago by offering accommodation in churches for homeless people throughout February. Now, over 400 volunteers man the operation from late October to March by cooking meals, clearing up, bringing donations or just spending valuable time talking to their guests.

The yearly event not only raises awareness of rough sleeping but also highlights the work done by Inn Churches and their partners.

Accent Foundation and 50 other local businesses participated in the event spending the whole night under the arches, to learn more about life on the streets and those directly affected by it.

Staff from Keepmoat Property Services, which provides a responsive repairs and maintenance service to social housing providers across the UK, handed out hot drinks to those participating and homeless people.

One of those taking part was Linda Crosby, Head of Customer Care and Community Involvement for Keepmoat Property Services. She said: “The Suits on the Street event not only highlights the problems of homelessness but it also helps to raise money for a worthy cause.

“Sometimes, we take things for granted when we get home, cook a hot meal, have warm baths and showers, sleep comfortably in our beds but a thought should be spared for those people who are not as fortunate and have to live on the streets especially at this time of year. This event really highlights this and we are pleased to have participated in it alongside our client, Accent Foundation.”

Emma Sharp, Training and Employment Manager for Accent Regeneration & Community Partnerships, said: “It was a very humbling experience for Accent staff. It was a privilege to share the streets with the people we met that night and listen to their stories of how they managed to survive life on the streets. We were all very grateful of Keepmoat’s support on the night providing a much needed hot drink.”

Working in partnership with Accent Foundation, Keepmoat Property Services provides a 24/7 responsive repairs & maintenance, void and planned works service across a portfolio of 7,000 properties.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Craig Downs .

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