Can you support Iffley Open House in calling on Oxford City Council to do the right thing and to re-open Lucy Faithful House as a night shelter?

Last year Lucy Faithful House was forced to close after 30 years of operation as a night shelter serving the homeless of Oxford due to budget cuts. This year further planned closures will mean a total loss in 261 beds for the homeless over the next 12 months across the city. 

Meanwhile homelessness has doubled in the last year and cuts to housing support services are making it harder for people to find a safe, secure home in their city.

At the Oxford City Council Budget meeting on 20th February we are calling for a vote to save Lucy Faithful House and reinstate it as a vital social service for the homeless.

The residents of Iffley Open House, a group that occupied an empty garage in east Oxford on New Year’s eve, is being forced to leave by the 27th February. The building owned by Wadham College has been run as a shelter and social space for and by homeless and rough sleepers. With no alternative the residents will be thrown back on the street on the 27th February in freezing temperatures. We are appealing to the council and wider public to support us in helping to rehouse the residents.

  
The Council administration want to sell off the Lucy Faithfull House site, most probably for luxury housing BUT there is an opposition amendment which will save the building and restore it as much needed homeless accommodation. The decision will be made at the Oxford City Council meeting on Monday 20th February.

If this petition gets 1500 signatures before the Council meeting then City Councillors will have to debate saving Lucy Faithfull House at the next Council meeting in April.