{"id":506826,"date":"2026-04-01T09:25:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/506826\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T09:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:25:12","slug":"a-dress-rehearsal-for-life-inside-the-manchester-project-helping-homeless-men-rebuild-homelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/506826\/","title":{"rendered":"A \u2018dress rehearsal\u2019 for life: inside the Manchester project helping homeless men rebuild | Homelessness"},"content":{"rendered":"

It costs a lot to live by the canal in central Manchester<\/a>, with even the pokiest of studios renting for \u00a31,000. But in Embassy Village, the city\u2019s newest waterside community, residents do not need to be rich. Quite the opposite, in fact. To live there, you have to be male, homeless and ready to get your life back on track.<\/p>\n

Nestled between the River Irwell and the Bridgewater canal, just across from the fashionable Castlefield district, Embassy\u2019s 40 studio flats have been built under two Victorian viaducts carrying the city\u2019s trams and trains.<\/p>\n

The land has been given for free on a 125-year lease by Peel Group, the developer behind MediaCity and the Trafford Centre.<\/p>\n

Peel owns the canal as well, which means residents can fish and kayak when they are not taking part in sessions on budgeting, cooking and getting ready for work. Embassy, the Christian charity behind the village, describes it as \u201cdress rehearsal\u201d for life back in bricks and mortar, cutting out the middle man of the shelter for homeless people.<\/p>\n

Chris, a 57-year-old former painter and decorator from the north-east, became Embassy\u2019s first resident after spending most of his life on the streets \u201ctravelling from town to town with a tent\u201d. When the Guardian visited, he was particularly enthused about the angling opportunities, hoping to beat his record of a 29lb carp.<\/p>\n

He seemed overwhelmed to have his own front door for the first time in years, and a view of the canal. \u201cI\u2019m very lucky,\u201d he said, as he marvelled at the pristine white walls of his new home, his private wet room and his small but high-spec German kitchen, kitted out with Bosch appliances.<\/p>\n

Chris (right), the first person to get keys to a new flat, with his support worker Reece at Embassy Village. Photograph: Joel Goodman\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want residents to feel like: \u2018Wow, I\u2019ve landed on my feet \u2013 I\u2019m going to take this opportunity,\u2019\u201d said Embassy\u2019s indefatigable founder, Sid Williams, whose first foray into helping homeless people involved turning Mumford & Sons\u2019 tour bus<\/a> into a mobile shelter.<\/p>\n

Williams, a former youth worker, wants residents to feel important and valued. \u201cIn God\u2019s upside down economy, the last, the poor, the least \u2013 in this world\u2019s eyes \u2013 are his VIPs. That\u2019s who Jesus wanted to spend his time with.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we were like, wouldn\u2019t it be great to take that literally? So that\u2019s why we got a VIP tour bus that had been touring Tinie Tempah and Coldplay and had a deeply inappropriate champagne fridge on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018This is like a dress rehearsal at managing a home, managing your finances and holding a job down\u2019 \u2026 Sid Williams, Embassy\u2019s founder. Photograph: Joel Goodman\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

As on the tour bus, drugs and alcohol are banned at Embassy, and no visitors are allowed. But it was a common misconception that most homeless people were addicts, said Williams, noting that about 60% of people were made homeless after a relationship breakdown.<\/p>\n

More and more \u201caverage Joes\u201d were ending up on the streets, he said. When he started working in the sector in 2004, many people were \u201cinstitutionalised, coming out of the care system, the armed forces, prison and shelters \u2026 Whereas now, we find there\u2019s about 300% to 400% on top, just your average Joes: people who just can\u2019t quite make ends meet any more\u201d.<\/p>\n

Those not in work are helped to apply for housing benefit \u2013 about \u00a3625 a month for a single man in Manchester, which covers Embassy\u2019s rent and a few costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is like a dress rehearsal at managing a home, managing your finances and holding a job down,\u201d said Williams. \u201cGranted, there\u2019s a lot of hand-holding here. We have one full-time support worker to every six residents, which is basically unheard of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Preparing residents for life outside Embassy was crucial, said Tim Heatley, a co-founder of Manchester developer Capital & Centric, who was in charge of raising the money for Embassy Village as chair of the Greater Manchester\u2019s Mayor\u2019s Charity. \u201cHelping them to clean, cook, budget, get a job, keep a job. If we don\u2019t get that right, then it will have failed.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wants residents to be comfortable, but not so much that they don\u2019t want to leave: \u201cI think we need to quickly move people from here on to their own accommodation \u2013 somewhere else that\u2019s not state-supported \u2013 so that they can continue then to rebuild and go on and not be reliant on the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Manchester, where 1 in 61 people are homeless, the social housing waiting list is 15 years for able-bodied men. \u201cNo chance, basically,\u201d said Williams. At Embassy\u2019s other projects in Greater Manchester, residents stay for an average of 14 months before going into private rentals. \u201cBetween 92% and 95% of residents leave us with a full-time job, no long-run benefits, going to private rental. So we\u2019re unburdening the council housing waiting list in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Bev Craig, Manchester city council\u2019s leader, Embassy Village is a cheering sign that \u201cgood people can do good things\u201d. The council will refer homeless people to Embassy because she likes the emphasis on community-building. \u201cWhen we talk to people that find themselves on the streets, it\u2019s a failure of mental health services, it\u2019s failure of tackling addiction, and it\u2019s the failure of not being able to deal with loneliness,\u201d she said. She hopes Embassy will \u201ctreat those individuals like they\u2019re part of a community, help them develop, and teach them what it means to be in safe and sustainable accommodation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Volunteers finalising the interior of one of the Embassy flats. 130 local business have worked for nothing or for no profit on the project. Photograph: Joel Goodman\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

The village is designed to encourage as much social interaction as possible, such as at weekly \u201cfamily dinners\u201d cooked by staff. A sports pitch and boxing gym are under construction, as is a joinery studio run by Oli Green, who crafted some of the fanciest kitchens in Cheshire before pivoting to work with homeless people.<\/p>\n

The \u00a36.2m build has been funded by the Moulding Foundation and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, as well as an extraordinary 130-strong coalition of local businesses working either for nothing or for zero profit \u2013 many of whom are also offering jobs and training to residents. But Williams is permanently fundraising to cover the costs of six staff members.<\/p>\n

James Whittaker, Peel\u2019s managing director, sees the Manchester Embassy Village as the first of many. \u201cWe\u2019re not stopping here,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can copy this in every city in every town throughout the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It costs a lot to live by the canal in central Manchester, with even the pokiest of studios…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-506826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}