Penny Wade House

SPEAR’s FIRST HOSTEL, PENNY WADE HOUSE

Our Penny Wade House Hostel was our first ever hostel named after our founder – Penny Wade. This hostel has now been supporting men and women suffering from homelessness for over 30 years.

RICHMOND

Penny Wade House – our first ever hostel in Richmond

Our homeless hostel in Richmond is the most well known of our services.

The hostel opened in 1986, with six bedrooms for twelve people, with shared bathrooms. With funding from the Hostel Capital Improvements Programme and in partnership with the London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames and Richmond Upon Thames Churches Housing Trust, the building was renovated. And Penny Wade House reopened its doors on September 13th 2010. The Hostel now caters for 14 people experiencing homelessness, all in single rooms with en-suite bathrooms. An extension on the back has provided a large, bright communal room and kitchen, in addition to a training room in the garden where clients are able access services from IT tuition, cooking, employment support and gardening.

Penny Wade House provides homeless people with accommodation for a short time during which clients work to identify their needs and to find suitable move-on accommodation. The resident’s key worker and specialist staff at SPEAR support them to move forward into more permanent accommodation, to consider work, volunteering or training and develop the skills they need to live independently. The Hostel priority client group is verified rough sleepers; referrals are taken from within the organisation (for instance from the Outreach Team) as well as from external agencies.