Graham Simpson MSP has praised the Salvation Army for bringing hope to people who are homeless.
Mr Simpson visited the church and charity’s Eva Burrows First Stop Project in Cambuslang to see first-hand the type of support people are receiving to get back into independent living.
Mr Simpson said he was impressed by the way the Salvation Army tailored support for each resident at every step of their journey out of homelessness.
The Eva Burrows First Stop Project is a 32-bed residential centre where specialist staff provide a safe environment to help people and families get their lives back on track. Residents can learn a range of skills training, including literacy, numeracy and IT. All referrals come from South Lanarkshire Council.
The centre is also a prominent part of the community in Halfway and is actively involved with the community council group, Particip8, Halfway in Bloom and the Overton Allotment Group which was gifted a large area of the centre’s grounds.
Mr Simpson said: “ I was hugely impressed by what I saw at the Eva Burrows Centre.
“It is doing valuable work in helping to get homeless people back into stable housing and able to move on woth their lives in a meaningful way. Meeting a couple of the residents just emphasised how complicated an issue this is. There are all sorts of reasons why people become homeless and it can strike almost anyone.
“We need to remove the stigma of homelessness and I look forward to working closely with the Salvation Army to achieve this.”
Andrew McCall, the regional homelessness manager for the Salvation Army in Scotland, said: “It was good for Mr Simpson to see the important work being done at Eva Burrows First Stop Project. We’re pleased to be able to highlight to him the kind of stories of transformation that take place there.
“We also highlighted the issues of homelessness and asked Mr Simpson to discuss these with his colleagues the Scottish Parliament in order to raise awareness of the complex challenges faced by the people we support.”
