Apex House in Levenshulme permanently rehouses 62 homeless families in its first year

Levenshulme’s Apex House is celebrating a successful first year, where it was able to rehouse sixty-two homeless families.

Apex House, located in Levenshulme, reopened in March 2021 with the aim to prevent struggling families spiralling into long-term homelessness.

The former office building had been refurbished into twenty flats by HSPG, a property investment company on a mission to end the homelessness crisis in the UK.

Three on-site support workers were employed to work closely with both families in need and the council’s private rented sector team in order to move families into the private rented sector instead of temporary accommodation.

HSPG

Over the past year, the organisation has offered temporary accommodation to eighty-two families, sixty-two of which have been permanently rehoused. The other twenty are still receiving support to find permanent accommodation.

Of these permanently rehoused families, thirty-seven were rehoused within eight weeks and twelve were rehoused within three months.

Thirteen families with greater needs spent around three months finding appropriate move on accommodation, but have all since had positive outcomes.

And thanks to the success of its first year, the council is now working with developers and looking at other premises in the city where its innovative model can be replicated.

HSPG

One of Apex House’s residents Vineta Simon, who moved into the accommodation with her two-month-old baby a month ago has praised both the facilities and the staff.

Explaining her circumstances, Vineta said: “I come from a working family, I’ve always worked, I owned a car, had a home but when I got pregnant and my relationship broke up, everything went downhill.

“I had to reach out for help for the first time ever and it has been a really difficult journey, from becoming homeless, something I never thought would happen to me, up until now.”

She admitted to ‘bursting into tears’ when seeing her flat at Apex House, noting how it was ‘clean, nicely refurbished and safe and secure’.

HSPG

She continued: “It had an immediate impact on my mental health, it made me feel like a human being again. The facilities are fantastic and there are staff around all the time to help me.

“Being in this flat with my baby has given me some breathing space and I can see light at the end of the tunnel, whereas before I could never imagine my future.”

Councillor Luthfur Rahman OBE, deputy leader of Manchester City Council, added: “Manchester is leading the way with innovative solutions to support families get back on their feet.

“We are incredibly pleased with the results of this new approach to support families into permanent accommodation in Apex House. It has proved so successful that we would like to replicate this across the city.”