The opening of Lancaster & District Homeless Action Service's new home was a momentous occasion, symbolizing hope and progress in our community's ongoing efforts to support those in need.
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00:00 We're absolutely delighted that we've been searching and saving for 10 years to find somewhere suitable and that we've actually done it now
00:08 It's an amazing achievement
00:09 it's been a lot of hard work for a lot of people a lot of fundraising involved and a lot of
00:15 involvement since we bought the building with
00:17 people builders
00:21 joiners
00:22 Painters the whole caboodle of setting up a new building. It's been quite a learning curve for me the other old building
00:29 We loved it dearly. It was 32 year old Porter cabin and it had everything we needed all the basic stuff like, you know
00:36 Shower and laundry and kitchen all the things that homeless people need but it was very old and falling to bits
00:42 What this has it's a modern building. It's easier to keep warm than the Porter cabin was and we have extra rooms here
00:50 we have
00:52 Work stations for visiting agencies. We have more offices. We have we're very proud of a medical room
00:59 We're working more and more with medical professionals. We have a nurse in three times a week and
01:03 We're going to have more medical professionals as time progresses and the hepatitis C trust come in as well to test blood
01:10 So that's a very valuable asset to us
01:13 I think what's important is creating a safe space and over the years, of course people have become to feel very safe
01:19 respected a
01:21 Place they would they would be treated with respect and people they knew so you move to a new space and of course that's going
01:27 To just be a bit destabilizing, but I was surprised
01:30 I thought when we first moved numbers would dip a little bit even though homelessness is rising
01:35 I thought some people may hold back a little bit to find out from the others
01:38 What it was like the first day here we left the other place last Friday
01:43 We opened here on Monday and it was just like a normal day
01:46 You know all that had changed was the location everything else was exactly the same
01:50 So I think by people voting with their feet in that way
01:55 It was a sign that they were quite content with the move because we're still providing all the services and extra services as well
02:02 You know in a new building it takes a while to make it home. I mean at the moment
02:07 It's a functioning building. We've got all we need but we need to make it home. It needs to feel a bit more lived-in now
02:12 It's got the feeling of a newly decorated building, you know, which is great
02:15 But it'll take a while before people are as I suppose familiar with it as they were at Edward Street
02:21 some of them have been coming for many, many years there.