1,000 signatures reached
To: Sean Palmer, Director Of Transformation, St Mungo's
Demand Harrow Road Homelessness Service Stays Out Of Private Hands
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Update: Senior management have confirmed they're selling the site to Lodha, a luxury private developer. Westminster council offered £2m above the guide price and expressed a desire to continue homelessness service provision, but Mungo's decided to prioritise profit over people.
Harrow Road Assessment centre, which houses homeless people in Westminster, is being sold to a private developer.
St Mungo’s homelessness charity, who currently own the service, put the site on sale after saying that the upkeep was too expensive, after years of letting the site fall into disrepair.
A private developer taking over the site will inevitably become a residential tower block full of unaffordable flats, without any guarantee of a continuation of a homelessness service.
St Mungo’s could choose to sell it directly to another charity or back to the council, which would protect the welfare of those currently accommodated there. Instead, they are prioritising profit over the workers and service users.
We, the workers at St Mungo’s, are calling on management to ensure the continuation of a homelessness service by not going ahead with this sale.
Sign our petition demanding that Harrow Road remain a homelessness service and stays out of private hands.
Harrow Road Assessment centre, which houses homeless people in Westminster, is being sold to a private developer.
St Mungo’s homelessness charity, who currently own the service, put the site on sale after saying that the upkeep was too expensive, after years of letting the site fall into disrepair.
A private developer taking over the site will inevitably become a residential tower block full of unaffordable flats, without any guarantee of a continuation of a homelessness service.
St Mungo’s could choose to sell it directly to another charity or back to the council, which would protect the welfare of those currently accommodated there. Instead, they are prioritising profit over the workers and service users.
We, the workers at St Mungo’s, are calling on management to ensure the continuation of a homelessness service by not going ahead with this sale.
Sign our petition demanding that Harrow Road remain a homelessness service and stays out of private hands.
Why is this important?
St Mungo's is a homelessness charity whose primary aim is to end homelessness. Prioritising profit above all else when it comes to selling the site is contrary to this objective. This sale has put 20 frontline workers at risk of redundancy and 44 clients at risk of homelessness. Unaffordable housing is the key driver behind homelessness and it’s unforgivable that a charity committed to ending homelessness is considering selling to a private developer who will inevitably be motivated by profit and thus contributing to the housing crisis and homelessness within the borough, at a time when homelessness is increasing and such services are needed more than ever.