Arc Light homeless hostel
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For the latest on Arc Light and the chance to comment, please go to http://www.york.gov.uk/housing/arclight.html
This morning the council leader Steve Galloway, Labour leader Dave Merritt and myself held a press conference to announce the 'shortlisted' sites being considered for the new Arc Light hostel. This is part of a new cross party step by step approach after the fiasco last year when the local Evening Press whipped up a frenzy of hysteria against the proposal to convert the old Shipton St School into a 'state of the art' modern facility. This was able to happen because the local Labour councillor claimed that the council (Lib Dem) was trying to 'gag' him because the team behind the plan wanted to allow people in the area to visit an exhibition before the full details were published in the press. What also fuelled the opposition was that than no other sites had been publicly considered.
The result was that the plan was withdrawn and £750,000 of government money was lost. The project still has £1.6m on offer, but a very tight timescale to meet if it is not to lose this money as well. The present facilities, while homely, and remote from residential areas are 'short life', being in the way of the 'York Central' development. Arc Light does an excellent job of providing emergency accommodation that allows rough sleepers to start to get their lives on a more even keel. In the past 5 years they have helped many people to move out of a desperate situation into more acceptable lifestyles and stable employment.
Three of the four sites being considered are car parks around the city centre, a reflection of the need for a site where work could start almost immediately. One site that would be ideal is unfortunately being 'sat on' by the owner in the hope of rich returns once the 'Castle Piccadilly' site is finally developed - That is the old White Swan Hotel right in the centre and emply for the past 20 years! If Arc Light end up missing out on the government funding I would support them squatting this building (as the Peace Collective did in 2003) to highlight the appalling waste of keeping this prime building empty while there are people desperate for housing in this city.
Update: The decision will be taken at the Executive meeting on May 2nd. A ward committee meeting for residents in Guildhall and Micklegate will be held on April 10th, chaired by ward councillors Dave Merritt and Janet Looker.
If you want to know a bit more what it is like to be homeless take a look at Jamie's Big Voice weblog.
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I hope a suitable site is found and that not too many people will cry "not in my back yard."
Congratulations Barrie. I have a daughter at a local school to Union Terrace and the campaigners cite the problems of Arclight being near a primary school as a reason to oppose its relocation. Well they certainly aren't speaking in my name.
The opposition to Arclight is ugly.
I'd like to support the previous comments. I live in Brownlow Street, not far from the proposed Union Street site and have no objections to the proposal. Hysterical residents in Clifton claimed that their house prices would be affected and the quality of their lives brought down if the hostel had been built there - with no evidence at all as far as I can work out. I lived around the corner from another hostel, in Stonebow, before moving to the Groves and far from the quality of my life being poorer I was not aware that it even existed so littel did it impact on the local area!
Got to agree with these comments on the hostel. I used to live just off Leeman Rd and was unaware of any problems caused by the hostel there. People seem to be getting wound up into a state of irrational fear, without finding out if there actually are problems where existing hostels are sited.
Please note there is a meeting for all residents or users of facilities near these sites on April 10th.
Andy
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Andy
0 Star(s) awarded I am a pupil from a secondary school, and i would just like to say that following my recent studies on hostels i have found that only a few percentage of people disagree with the proposal's.
