‘Homeless clients will account for 10% of our staff by 2007’

A London homelessness charity is planning to hire its clients to fill one in 10 of its own vacancies.

Thames Reach Bondway plans that 10% of its 321-strong workforce will have been selected from homeless people by 2007 and will begin hiring homeless people in July.

It is also developing 12 traineeships to support homeless people into work and will revise employment practices to encourage applications from former service users.

The project will target former rough sleepers and people living in hostels or emergency accommodation. A second London charity, Broadway, is working on a similar project.

The Thames Reach Bondway scheme, Giving Real Opportunities for Work, will cost £533,000 and is funded by American charity the Oak Foundation and Equal, a European Social Fund project.

Thames Reach Bondway hopes other charities will copy its model for employing former service users. The homelessness sector currently employs 3000 people in the capital alone, but charitable company the London Housing Foundation said only one agency – Novas Group – had a recruitment programme for homeless people.

Broadway, Thames Reach Bondway and the London Housing Foundation have jointly hired a member of staff to research how the project could work and obstacles that prevent homeless people getting jobs in the sector.

The project was inspired by a visit to New York in 2003 by several homelessness charities where organisations such as the Fortune Academy, a charity for ex-offenders, employ their clients.

John Crowther, director of operations at Thames Reach Bondway, said: “User employment makes a lot of sense to us, but is still rare among UK homelessness agencies. We want to change things so that resettled people get more of the jobs, current service users see inspiring role models when they come to our agencies and we get the benefit of people’s wealth of first-hand knowledge, expertise and ingenuity.”