Simon off the streets after charity’s eviction shock

A homeless people’s charity was in danger of itself becoming homeless just before Christmas until volunteers rallied round to help find them a new base.

Leeds-based Simon on the Streets provides outreach support to rough sleepers, homeless people and others in danger of becoming homeless due to a range of needs such as drug and alcohol dependency and mental health issues.

The charity emailed out an urgent cry for help to all its supporters after receiving an eviction notice giving them just two weeks’ to vacate their Leeds office base. Along with all the other tenants in the building, they were ordered to move out by today (December 15).

Malik House Business centres, who run the Crown House Business Centre in Armley Road, Leeds, responded quickly to the call – and the charity is now moving into a new home in the state-of-the-art complex, just in the nick of time.

The Business Centre opened just last year after a £1m refurbishment of the historic Leeds Forge and, luckily, still has just a few units available for occupation. This meant Simon on the Streets was able to move in almost immediately with the help of Malik House staff and the charity’s volunteers.
On receiving the email Malik House Director Sheraz Malik contacted the charity immediately, invited them to view the office space and offered to work with as much flexibly as possible to get them moved in before the eviction deadline.

The charity’s Development Manager Sue Oliver said: “It would have been a real irony if Simon on the Streets had itself become homeless. For a small charity like ours it was a huge challenge to find affordable new premises in just two weeks without diverting resources from where they are most needed.

“However, thanks to our supporters and volunteers getting the word out – we’ve been able to achieve a really positive outcome and we now have an ideal permanent home. Crown House gives us easy access to Leeds City Centre and other parts of Leeds where there is a lot of work to do. An added bonus for us is that, through Malik House, we can access the support of Yorkshire Enterprise Network which will enable us to reach out to corporates in Bradford and across the county in the same way we have worked very hard to do in Leeds.

“Once we’d got over the shock of the eviction notice, it seemed the obvious thing to reach out to our supporters for help. The response was tremendous, and the volunteers have also rallied round to help us with the move, so we are all feeling very positive again right now.”

Tom Donegan, the charity’s admin and marketing assistant, said: “What started out as quite a challenging situation has now turned into an opportunity. Despite such short notice, a rallying call to our supporters resulted in an extraordinary response, providing various suggestions and offers of time and resources to help with the move. We are extremely grateful for all the support we have received and delighted to announce that, against the clock, we have found our perfect new home.”

Sheraz Malik is Director of Malik House Business Centres and YEN (Yorkshire Enterprise Network). He said: “It’s great to be in a position to help such an amazing organisation as Simon on the Streets who do so much good work for the most vulnerable people across the city. It’s fantastic that we now have them housed in one of our buildings which means we’ll be in a good position to forge a close relationship with the charity and support them in various ways through the Yorkshire Enterprise Network”.