Quaker flats help youth homelessness
Flats restored by Norfolk & Waveney Area Meeting have been leased to a local charity
Norfolk & Waveney Quakers celebrated last month when one of their buildings was leased to a youth homelessness charity.
Local Quaker Sue Sharpe told the Friend that trustees had been working on the project for more than nine years, but it finally came to fruition last month. ‘24 Pottergate, a building in Quaker ownership that adjoins Norwich Meeting House, had been empty for some time, and has now been restored.’
The property now contains six self-contained flats, with furnished kitchens, bathrooms and living spaces, as well as a communal social space. The flats have been leased to local charity The Benjamin Foundation, which works to prevent youth homelessness across Norfolk and Suffolk, providing more than 57,000 safe nights to youngsters annually. ‘The Pottergate flats provide the foundation’s first central Norwich accommodation,’ said Sue, ‘so form a vital part of their service. The project was funded by grants, Norwich City Council, and a local Quaker family charity, but what carried the project over the line was the Charity Commission consent being granted to use an endowment left by local brewer and Friend Samuel Robbins in 1711.’
Sue Sharpe added: ‘The money had been left to support Quaker apprentices… but over the centuries, it became harder and harder to find qualifying beneficiaries, so the fund had grown. Because 24 Pottergate has been converted into supported living accommodation for young care leavers, it was agreed that [this]… was an appropriate contemporary interpretation of the wishes of Samuel Robbins.’
The formal handover took place on 27 February, with a lunch attended by Norfolk & Waveney Area Meeting trustees, local civic dignitaries, and trustees from the Quaker family trust that supported the project.
