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No prayer meetings at Christian-founded hostel
Topic Started: Friday, 26. June 2009, 14:15 (144 Views)
Rose of York
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South Devon Herald Express - ‎Jun 12
2009‎
THE £2.5million homeless hostel taking shape in Factory Row, Torquay, is due to be completed next month but with new managers.

Torbay Council has put the operation and management of the 24-bed hostel, being developed by the Langley House Trust, out to tender as part of a regular renewal of contracts, and decided the new managers are to be homeless charity Shekinah Torbay and social landlord Chapter One of Exeter.

The site has been developed by the Langley House Trust, a Christian registered social landlord, which took over the operation from the founding Bay churches homeless trust in 2005.

Langley development director Colin Angus said the building is due to be completed by July 3, with an official opening in the autumn.

He said Langley had bid for the contract to run the new centre but had not been successful and it was a blow to lose control of the site where they had invested so much time and energy.

He added: "We have got over the disappointment and now we are working with Shekinah and Chapter One to ensure that homeless people will benefit from the new centre."

The new hostel for homeless and vulnerable single people is to be named after its founder Leonard Stocks, who set up the Torbay Churches Homeless Trust at Factory Row in 1990.

It will help around 50 people a year as each person will have a six-month tenancy.

It will have 24 bedrooms with en-suite facilities as well as training rooms, staff offices, GP consulting room, treatment room, and a roof terrace.
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Rose of York
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THREE DAYS LATER, ANOTHER PRESS REPORT;

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South Devon Herald Express - ‎Jun 15
2009‎

Quote:
 
CHRISTIAN groups at a new £2.5million hostel for the homeless in Torbay are locked in a prayer wrangle.

The Friends of Factory Row are objecting to a ban on holding prayer meetings at the newly-rebuilt hostel, a tradition which they say has run for 18 years.

The hostel in Factory Row, Torquay, is due to reopen next month with new Christian managers.


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The friends have been told the prayer tradition will not be allowed to continue when the 24 residents return from their temporary Newton Road accommodation, after the 18-month rebuild.
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Rose of York
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This is all about inclusivity, the hostel is there to serve all, regardless of colour, race or creed. If they want to provide for all, they could give people of other faiths the opportunity to use the prayer room, that would be true service to all regardless of faith.

The new managers want the residents to get their spiritual support from outside in the wider community. I would see the logic of that if they also told the residents that if they want to see the doctor they can go out to visit a local GP. No, they have their own in house facility for physical health, but must go elsewhere for spiritual health.

Don't these managers understand that for some homeless people, prayer IN THE HOME was part of their lives before they became homeless?
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The problem is where is the prayer space? Often in hostels it is the resident’s lounge and it would not be fair to move people every time you want a prayer service. I used to say mass in the dining room but again the timing was inconvenient for some and many faiths would not regard the dining room as conducive to prayer, the smell of bacon and cabbage may appeal to some but not I suspect the Rabi or Muller.
Also this is a temporary hostel not a home and it is important that the distinction is made and kept otherwise the whole object of the project is defeated. The sooner the person is able to reintegrate into a permanent community the better and I suspect that the helpers and managers are involved in helping the people find a longer term solution and that will involve, counselling, financial advice, medical care and spiritual care but from the best and most appropriate source. A GP is a GP regardless of race creed or colour and priest or spiritual advisor is more specialized. They do not have a dentist or optician or physiotherapist but I am sure some of the residents will need the services of such specialists.
I remember in the late 1980's when there was a proposed care in the community home being discussed in the parish I was working in. The CPN (Community Psychiatric Nurse) called on the parish and spoke to myself and the parish priest and we agreed that it would no trouble to us if some of the residents came to the 8 am Sunday Mass (which was without Hymns) or the 11 am Mass with hymns but that it would probably not be a good thing for them to come to the mass in the school hall at 9:30 because it might make some of the patients and children uncomfortable. The CPN was very supportive and said that even though not all the staff coming with the patients would be Catholic every effort would be made to ensure that the residents would be given the choice and accommodated. Sadly the local residents objected to the home and it was never opened. When at a Parish event the PP mentioned to some people that he was disappointed with the attitude of the locals he was told in no uncertain terms that he had no right to expose the young people of the parish to mental patients and it was a jolly good thing that they had not opened the home. I can see a parallel here. Some people will be very supportive of the homeless being put in a hostel but as to them being allowed to mix with the community "Oh no!"
The Hostel is fulfilling its Christian duty by feeding housing and I suspect clothing these poor people and I further commend them for allowing them to integrate into whatever prayer service or worship is available in the neighbourhood and I hope the locals are more Christian in their welcome than the parishioners were back in '89.
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Rose of York
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Penfold
Friday, 26. June 2009, 15:17
The problem is where is the prayer space? Often in hostels it is the resident’s lounge and it would not be fair to move people every time you want a prayer service.

According to the newspaper report, the prayer space was in a room other than the main lounge and no residents objected. I quoted excerpts from the report, to keep within copyright guidelines.
South Devon Herald Express - ‎Jun 15 2009‎
 
However, chairman Nick Pannell said: "We object to apparent plans to ban prayers in the hostel, depriving the residents of much-needed spiritual support."

He said small prayer meetings have been held in the hostel since 1991.

Four years ago they were moved to a side-room so that residents could choose whether to take part or not.

"For those facing a crisis they've proved a great support," he said.

There had never been objections from residents, he said, and the meetings had been an element of the life of the hostel with clergy from many different denominations taking part.





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The question still stands, where is the prayer space, it was in a side room before refurbishment is that room still there? Secondly they are not banning prayer they are simply not providing the prayer meetings that used to take place. I also reiterate the point about the need to integrate and the fact that this is a Hostel not a home and the residents are temporary and in need of rehabilitation. I do not see that there is any cause for complaint the old firm lost the contract to run the hostel and it has been refurbished and placed under new management; I smell sour grapes rather than positive support for the residents. It is very easy to feel virtuous when conducting a service for people who are beholden to you for the food on their table and the roof over their head. I am sorry but I have read the articles and the comments people have sent in and it is as I feared a case of people wanting to hide the homeless rather than accept them into their midst.
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william of bow
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I think the real story here is more about how the Langley House Trust, a national charity with a good track record of hostel management is encouraged to put a lot of work and money into developing a new Hostel only to have the fruit of that work snatched away at the last minute when the management contract is givin to two (local) organisations. Do I smell a rat here? At least, something not quite 'kosher'?The Local Authority will come out of it heads up since I doubt they put any money into this project but, hey, they get to run it albeit at arms length through the housing management agency which is (I suspect) their housing department in a different legal guise.

Constructing and developing a hostel is not a cheap project. Keeping within the necessary Health & Safety, and Fire laws alone will put millions on the budget these days. And I can assure you that this hostel will have 24 rooms, with ensuite. This is not a dormitory as such things are no longer allowed.

Penfold, this is not a 'temporary' hostel but a permanent hostel with 24 bed spaces. 'Temporary' hostels are bed spaces usually available only between, say November and February. Eg. Crisis at Christmas provide temporary hostels. This Torquay hostel will be a permanaent hostel open, we assume 7 days a week, 12 months of the year.

Homelessness along the south coast is a chronic situation. The homeless and the derelict tend to migrate towards the coastal resorts from all over the country. It has a lot to do with being able to pick up temporary seasonal work (although not perhaps this year) and also the milder, warmer climates in the winter.

William
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william of bow
Saturday, 27. June 2009, 08:59
Penfold, this is not a 'temporary' hostel but a permanent hostel with 24 bed spaces. 'Temporary' hostels are bed spaces usually available only between, say November and February. Eg. Crisis at Christmas provide temporary hostels. This Torquay hostel will be a permanaent hostel open, we assume 7 days a week, 12 months of the year.
The maximum length pf residence is 6 months this is tempory because the Building may be perminant but it provides Tempory accomodation.
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william of bow
Saturday, 27. June 2009, 08:59
Homelessness along the south coast is a chronic situation. The homeless and the derelict tend to migrate towards the coastal resorts from all over the country. It has a lot to do with being able to pick up temporary seasonal work (although not perhaps this year) and also the milder, warmer climates in the winter.

I have lived in Devon. Outside the holiday period, seasonal workers find work on planting bulbs and, later, harvesting flowers, bulbs and vegetables. Some towns have a homelessness problem throughout the year. A lot of the people who go there for the holiday work have no home to return to, so they remain whether or not they can find work outside the holiday season.
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Ned

Interestingly the new management are Shekinah Torbay.

From the name they might have religious connections !
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Rose of York
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Ned, they do have Christian connections.

http://www.shekinahtorbay.com/

Quote:
 
Shekinah Torbay (formerly called Project 58) is founded on the words of Isaiah 58:



‘The kind of fasting I want is this: Remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice, and let the oppressed go free. Share your food with the hungry and open your homes to the homeless poor. Give clothes to those who have nothing to wear, and do not refuse to help your own relatives.

Then my favour will shine on you like the morning sun, and your wounds will be quickly healed. I will always be with you to save you; my presence will protect you on every side. When you pray, I will answer you. When you call to me, I will respond.

If you put an end to oppression, to every gesture of contempt, and to every evil word; if you give food to the hungry and satisfy those who are in need, then the darkness around you will turn to the brightness of noon.’


It is interesting to read the story of the founder
http://www.shekinahtorbay.com/trustees.php
Quote:
 
Our fifth trustee is Mr Pete Chapman OBE. Pete also has an incredible story. He was brought up by his grandparents and worked the East End with his grandfather as a rag and bone man when he was a child. He then joined the fishing fleet at Hull and drank his money away every time he came ashore. Having learned how to fight and how to make a few bob at an early age, Pete says he was always in trouble and eventually lost his job.

One day in 1976 Pete was living and drinking in a bus shelter in Weymouth. A man came to talk to him often and told him he was not alone. The man and his wife would take him to their home when he was very drunk, and Pete would steal from them. This man had given Pete a bible which he opened to read one day in the dole queue (you had to be sober to collect your giro).

He read Proverbs 23 vv29-35

'Show me someone who drinks too much, who has to try out some new drink, and I will show you someone miserable and sorry for himself, always causing trouble and always complaining. His eyes are bloodshot, and he has bruises that could have been avoided...'

Pete went with his friends from the dole office to fill up a shopping trolley with drink, but he could not raise a bottle to his lips. He got up and walked away and went to see the man and his wife and ask for help. Pete says he didn't really understand what love meant but the man and his wife talked about Jesus' love for him and he started going to church.

Having overcome alcoholism and homelessness Pete founded The Shekinah Mission in 1992, our sister organisation based in Plymouth. He opened the day centre to compliment the night shelter in Plymouth because the hardest thing he had to do as night shelter staff was 'telling someone who's really trying (to get clean) to go and walk the streets all day and come back tonight'. Pete was awarded an OBE in February 2006 for his work with homeless people. He is familiar with almost every part of Britain and also the pitfalls of a life on the streets. Pete is fantastic and very wise in his advice, guidance and faith. Now aged 68, he recently retired as the chief executive of The Shekinah Mission but maintains his involvement. We are now fortunate enough to have him as a trustee in Torbay.
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