Sanctuary Trust – helping people in Rochdale

The Sanctuary Trust is a registered charity dedicated to helping homeless people in Rochdale.

The charity, which began in 1990, was set up to help tackle homelessness and homeless related issues throughout Rochdale.

A drop in centre was originally opened on Christmas Eve 1990 to help people in the area. The centre served Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day of that year. A hostel was then built in 1991 with the drop in centre closing a few years later.

Working in Rochdale today, the trust currently has hostels and night shelters as well as a storehouse.

Dave Smith, Director of the Sanctuary Trust, said: “We are important for Rochdale because there are a lot of issues and we are dealing with the issues of homelessness. We also believe that we are helping impact on the drop in figures relating to burglaries, robberies and on street robberies because we are helping people.”

Halsall House is the Sanctuary’s hostel located on Tweedale Street. This was the trust's first supported housing project. The hostel has room for 13 homeless men and provides a programme to help those individuals gain independent living as well as taking their place in society.

Whilst at the hostel, residents work with key workers to help them tackle issues that have caused homelessness. 

The charity also recently opened STEP (Sanctuary Trust Emergency Programme). Located on Milnrow Road, the programme meets with individuals and sign posts them to appropriate services. This has space for up to eight homeless men and women.

“The Milnrow Road accommodation was full last year. On average people stay for around 17 weeks with those people leaving us drug and alcohol free,” added Dave.

The Sanctuary Trust storehouse is located on Drake Street and opened in January 2009.

Susan Mennie, manager of the storehouse said: “We are quite busy throughout the week. We have a variety of people coming in to the store.”

The storehouse is run by volunteers and helps people find furniture and items needed to furnish their accommodation.

“We have 15 volunteers during the week but we are always happy to welcome more” added Susan.

As well as helping homeless people, the charity helps people with drug and alcohol issues. “There are a lot of issues in Rochdale and there are a lot of drug and alcohol related issues so the charity is able to help those people who need it,” said Susan.

After successfully helping people in Rochdale, the charity has branched out and also runs projects in Conway, North Wales.

Dave added: “We are not about building empires but when Sheila Halsall was due to retire in 2005, she went to Conway and saw that there were issues and wanted to help so we set up similar projects over there to ones that we have in Rochdale.”

Anyone wishing to volunteer at the storehouse or has items to donate can contact them on 01706 649988.