MoCoCo House Celebrates Official Opening

Friday 27th February marked the official opening of MoCoCo House, a Cheshire based homelessness charity that CRASH and our Patron companies have been working with.

The need

The ambitious project involved transforming a former bus garage into nine self-contained bedsits for young homeless adults as well as a warden flat, a training room and a small laundry room.

The solution

After MoCoCo House reached out to us, we got to work contacting our patrons to see how much support we could offer to the project.

How patrons helped

The first step in the process was to ensure the building was watertight therefore CRASH called upon Patron companies Bauder and Galliford Try to undertake a roofing survey and awarded the project a cash grant of £10,000 towards the vital roof repairs.

Supplies of internal insulation, plasterboard and paint were donated by CRASH Patrons British Gypsum, Dulux Trade, Knauf and Siniat. Flooring was sourced at significant discount from CRASH supporter Heckmondwicke.

Galliford Try sourced 11 high quality kitchens including one specially adapted for disabled use and one in a communal area for teaching life skills at a significantly discounted rate and also undertook an extensive utilities survey which led to CRASH awarding a further £10,000 grant for electricity and water upgrades.

Areen Design went above and beyond in their support supplying beds, sofas, tables, chairs, wardrobes and light fitting completely free of charge for all nine bedsits and the warden’s flat.

The social impact

Research undertaken by umbrella body Homeless Link indicates that under 25s now account for more than half of people seeking help with homelessness and make up over half of those living in homeless accommodation services in England.

While the number of 16 to 24 year olds accepted as homeless by local authorities has steadily decreased since 2006, there has been a recent rise in the number of 18 to 20 year old care leavers accepted as homeless. This fact is just one of the reasons that helped CRASH decided to provide such extensive support to MoCoCo House.

The issues that lead to homelessness and the needs of young people experiencing homelessness are becoming more complex. Once homeless, it is harder to move on.