At a celebration of World Habitat Day in Washington, D.C., the World Habitat Awards were presentedby Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UN-HABITAT, and Diane Diacon, Director of the Building and Social Housing Foundation.
The two recipients of this year's World Habitat Awards are:
Building Partnerships to Eradicate Poverty, POLAND
The Barka Foundation for Mutual Help works to house and support homeless and socially marginalised people in Poland, assisting over 50,000 people to date.
Caprichando a Morada - COOPERHAF, BRAZIL
A community-managed rural housing project that aims to address the critical housing needs of low-income rural families whilst working to create sustainable livelihoods.
The United Nations has designated the first Monday in October every year as World Habitat Day to reflect on the state of human settlements and the basic right to adequate shelter for all. The theme of this year's World Habitat Day is Planning our Urban Future.
Notes
There is an InFocus series, accessed from the Home Page of our website, which focuses each month on one of this year's winners / finalists.
Homelessness Charity Receives New Hardship Fund Grant
The Connection in St Martin's-in-the Field received a Government grant of £185,000 to provide much needed services for homeless people in the London.
The Government Hardship Fund grant will secure a weekend service for homeless people in Trafalgar Square - benefiting over 1,000 rough sleepers and vulnerably housed people. This is the only weekend service in the Capital providing a day and night service and is open all year round.
The £16.7 million Hardship Fund was announced by the Chancellor in his Budget in April 2009. It aims to help voluntary organisations, charities and social enterprises that are suffering financial hardship that is impacting on their ability to deliver vital services in health and social care, housing support, education and training, and information, advice and guidance.
The Connection in St Martin's-in-the Fields is one of 74 voluntary organisations who are the first to receive Hardship Fund grants of between £50,000 and £250,000 each.
The Connection at St Martin’s provides an open-door specialist service to homeless people in central London, 21 hours a day, 364 days a year. They are the busiest day centre in London, supporting an average of 5,000 people to move away from homelessness each year.
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Homeless Link Upbeat About Progress to End Rough Sleeping
In organising international sporting events, homeless people have often been regarded as a visible embarrassment. Four years ago, London was awarded the 2012 Olympics and the charity Homeless Link called for change.
Since then, it has led the campaign to end rough sleeping by 2012. Jenny Edwards, Chief Executive of Homeless Link, the national umbrella organisation for frontline homelessness charities, said:
"Today we are 1,000 days from the goal of ending rough sleeping. This ambition started with our members, who solve, on a daily basis, the individual homelessness of people who others have given up on.
"We are very encouraged by the strategic work of the London Delivery Board, directed by the Mayor of London. In less than 9 months, nearly 90 of the 205 rough sleepers who have been identified by London's outreach teams as amongst the most entrenched, have been successfully helped into accommodation.
"These individuals have traditionally been the hardest to reach, as a result of having slept rough for so many years and having multiple issues. The achievement of getting nearly half of them off the streets is a testament to the value of partnership working between the public and third sectors and a focus on achieving common goals.
"We know that preventing new people from having to sleep rough is absolutely key to end rough sleeping within 1,000 days. There has already been good progress in reductions from care and armed services and we are actively working to reduce the flow from prison. Political leadership in these areas, combined with the input of people who have experience of homelessness, will ensure this country achieves a place in history for social justice."