The Society of St James (SSJ) are pleased to announce that in the week before Christmas they exchanged contracts for the purchase of a house in Southampton to be used for move-on accommodation for homeless people.

SSJ is both a charity and a housing association and is eligible to bid for government grants to purchase and refurbish property to provide more housing for vulnerable adults. This purchase means that SSJ is on track to buy a property each month during this financial year, in Southampton, Portsmouth and Aldershot.

In Southampton they plan to open an additional 37 units by the summer of 2019. Many of these will be used as people move on from hostels and other specialist housing schemes, which in turn, will create more space in the hostels to take people off the streets. Three of the units are used to house homeless families nominated by Southampton City Council.

SSJ’s long term strategy is to provide emergency accommodation and specialist support for vulnerable and homeless people. They are seeking to increase their stock of independent housing, to provide a better range of options to meet the challenge of reducing rough sleeping in the city.