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New Accommodation for homeless
29/01/1999
Young single homeless people are to be given a boost when Scottish Housing Minister Calum MacDonald opens a new £1.4 million unit offering support and a roof over their heads today.
The fifteen bed spaces at the former Royal Samaritan Hospital in Govanhill, Glasgow are being provided by the area's housing association as part of a project to convert the building.
Opening the new unit Mr MacDonald said:
"The accommodation and facilities here are excellent and I am sure the support services, which are being provided by the Talbot Association, will be of an equally high standard.
"This community based service which has been built with the help of funding from the Department of Social Security and Scottish Homes will provide a more informal, open type of accommodation and atmosphere aimed at helping young homeless people become more independent.
"This Government has made tackling homelessness a national priority for local authorities and Scottish Homes which plan to secure provision of almost 2,500 homes for homeless people this year."
BACKGROUND
1. The Provision at the Former Royal Samaritan Hospital is part of a wider initiative to close the Bishopbriggs Resettlement Centre in East Dunbartonshire and re-house the existing residents into better, smaller, purpose built accommodation.
2. Govanhill Housing Association is a community based housing association with charitable status, which was established in 1974 and is among the oldest housing associations in Glasgow. Its' main aim when established was to undertake the improvement of sub-tolerable tenement properties in the Govanhill area. Since 1975 it has been successful in improving over 1,800 substandard properties.
In more recent years the Association has diversified into new build development and has provided a number of specific special needs projects. An example of this is Belleisle House, which provides accommodation for older people suffering from dementia, an augmented care unit for the frail elderly, accommodation for people with physical disabilities, learning difficulties, and mental health problems.
News Release: 0167/99
29 January 1999