WIREDGOV

Your Place is an East London homelessness charity which owns and manages Anchor House a 155 bed hostel.

We are really mindful of the challenges and responsibilities that managing such a large building brings, ranging from developing asset management strategies, facing compliance requirements (including increased expectations from insurers), high levels of wear and tear of components and contributing towards creating a safe psychologically informed environment for our residents. These bring serious demands on our Facilities team.

We are also aware that the majority of professional networks across the homelessness sector focus on specialist areas of support or wider policy issues. We noticed that there appeared to be a gap around hostel /building management. We are a particularly niche specialism in the sector and even more so across the broader social housing, asset management based networks.

We thought that there may be sufficient interest to create a professional network across the relevant leads for facilities/health and safety /building management. We have put in place a zoom meeting on 14th June at 10.30 to provide an opportunity to explore whether there is a need for a professional network that would promote peer-peer learning and best practice.

If you are interested in attending this meeting please contact John Lowery, Director of Frontline Services john.lowery@your-place.org.uk or call 078 0452 4680 to confirm attendance and I will share meeting details. If you can't come but are interested in joining the network do also let me know.

We are grateful for Homeless Link agreeing to circulate this invitation to you and if you could please pass on the invitation to the relevant person in your organisation.