The Masters House Story

19/07/2021

To respond to the threat of COVID-19 to rough sleepers, we needed a partnership approach. We wanted to see people kept safe, given the help they needed to manage their accommodation, and then to move on into longer-term housing’.

Andy King. Housing Advice Partnerships Manager, Cambridge City Council.

In October 2020, as lockdown continued and with Winter fast approaching, Cambridge City Council leased Masters House, an eighty-room student block on Histon Road. The plan was to provide a single location where homeless people could be accommodated with dignity and privacy in a COVID safe environment.

It Takes a City (ITaC) were asked to provide staff and day to day management of the project, including feeding and supporting guests with personal items, laundry, and other needs. Chris Dade, John Cross and Emma Rule were hugely experienced in working within the homeless sector in Cambridge and were trusted faces. They already had strong relationships with our partner agencies.

There were a few initial issues as guests were moved in from several dispersed locations, including directly from the streets. During this settling in period, and throughout the project, Evolve Guards Ltd provided sensitive and empathetic security for staff and guests alike.

“It Takes a City have played a key part in this partnership approach”

The huge task of providing food, personal items and laundry services was coordinated by Lesley Crocker and Eileen Hori. They relied upon a dedicated team of individuals and organisations, including Caring for Cambridgeshire’s Homeless (CCH), Cambridge Churches Homeless Project (CCHP), Wintercomfort and St Andrew’s Street Baptist Church. Three meals a day were provided, seven days a week.

Having up to eighty guests in one location, many with complex needs, enabled the ITaC team and partner agencies, (among them CGL, Jimmy’s, Cambridge Cyrenians, CCHP), to find suitable move on accommodation. Emma Rule was particularly successful in supporting female guests. Pastoral and mentoring support was provided by CCHP and CHS Group, ensuring guests had opportunities to discuss anything of concern.

As part of their efforts to ensure guests had a range of move on options the City Council set up the PRS20 project, making private sector properties available for rent to those seeking to move out of the emergency accommodation provided for them during the pandemic. Building on his expertise and work at Masters House, Chris Dade was asked to lead and manage a subsequent project to provide floating support to those placed under the PRS20 initiative. We were delighted that Chris agreed to become a member of the ITaC team.

As COVID restrictions began to ease and with all but a small number of guests moved on, Masters House finally closed on 30 June.

It Takes a City have played a key part in this partnership approach. They have been instrumental in sourcing emergency accommodation, delivering meals and practical items, and helping people find permanent places to stay. We had no COVID outbreaks in our emergency accommodation, and we have seen countless people’s lives improved. It has been a colossal effort over the last 15 months, but in partnership we have exceeded what we set out to achieve’

Andy King.

The Masters House Story

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