Welcome to the website of
Huggard...
Cardiff's Community
Homelessness Charity
Newsflash:
Huggard's New Building is getting nearer to completion!:
Following nearly ten years of discussion and planning Huggard's plans to redevelop its land, working in partnership with Cardiff Council and Hafod Housing Association, has now become a reality.
While Huggard's new facilities are being completed, Huggard is in temporary accommodation in Custom House, Custom House Street, Cardiff CF10 1AP.
(above Custom House, Huggard's tempoary site for 18 months)
The prize at the end of the building work is a brand new Homelessness Single Assessment Centre. These new facilites will provide the best facilities for tackling homelessness in the UK. The Lottery is funding a training, development and enterprise suite, as part of the development, that will play a vital role in breaking the cycle of homelessness for countless individuals over the lifespan of the project. Richard Edwards, Chief Executive of Huggard said "Being homeless can quickly take away self respect and destroy future hopes and dreams that a person may have. This new development will provide unparrallelled support and give opportunities for individuals to realise their maximum potential to live independent and sustainable lives."
(above The New Huggard Buildings - an artist's impression)
Funding for the building work is now in place, but Huggard still needs to raise vital money to equip and develop services for the new centre. Please consider donating to our work using the button to the left of this page.
Donating to our work is particularly important at the moment, not only because of our development plans but also because we are unable to run our usual annual fundraiser this year due to the imminent building move. Instead of our usual sleepout we will be holding a street carol service between 6pm and 10pm on Friday 3rd December outside of the Tabernacle in the Hayes, Cardiff. If you would like to help in the street collection or are involved in a choir that would like to join us please email Karen Holbrook, Huggard's Administrator.
Single homeless people come from all walks of life, from "good" homes as often "bad", comfortable well-off families as well as the not so well off - elderly as well as young - women as well as men. There are many of them - several hundred in Cardiff alone sleeping in hostels, in temporary accommodation or sleeping rough.
Few have chosen homelessness, most would like to get back to a house, a job and a settled life style, but it's a long steep climb from being on the street to living independently.
Yet with help and support it is a climb people could make! Huggard provides this help.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ORGANISE YOUR OWN EVENT TO RAISE MONEY FOR OUR WORK YOU CAN SET UP YOUR OWN FUNDRAISING PAGE BY CLICKING ABOVE.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A SECURE ONLINE DONATION PLEASE USE THE LINK ON THE LEFT HAND SIDE OF THIS PAGE.
In the last year our doors have remained open to those who need our services the most in Cardiff. Many have travelled from across Wales and further afield to be in this Capital City. We see over 18,500 visits a year to our centre. 40% of those accessing our services are under the age of 25.
Although we see an increasing number of young people accessing our services, our clients do not fit into a clear stereotype as each has their own background and story. Some have suffered abuse; some have experienced relationship breakdown or the death of a loved one; some have severe physical or mental health problems; some have alcohol or drug dependencies; some have been drawn into street crime and prostitution as a means to survive.
Whatever their story, all Huggard clients are vulnerable and suffer from extreme social exclusion. We know that this is often a difficult cycle to break. We see our role as being there to welcome, engage, support, nurture and develop people out of homelessness. We provide a range of services, development opportunities and accommodation to help people to achieve this.
Perhaps the ethos of our work is best expressed by Darren T Atkins, one of Huggard’s service users who writes;
“Being homeless does not need to stop you from doing what you want in life. Look at me, I am homeless but that don’t stop me from writing short stories about being homeless. If you want a new skill, go and learn it, ‘coz being homeless don’t stop you from learning that skill. I want to be a writer. I’m homeless, I have the time to put pen to paper. Being homeless has meant that I have made friends with a lot of people and I got support that I would never have got before. I have respect and my pride now. There’s people who pull themselves down ‘coz they’ve lost everything, their home, family and job. But you can have that again if you want it. You don’t need to stay homeless forever.”
The help we get from the general public helps us to ensure that our facilities continue to be available to help people like Darren.
If you would like to know more about our services, please email Richard Edwards, Huggard's Chief Executive.
We would be very pleased to answer any questions that you may have.
