Last night (October 10) I attended the Winchester Beacon Supporters Event at the Arc. There were a lot of people there and a lot of positivity about how to tackle the issues of homelessness in Winchester and how best to support those with chaotic lives.

It is clear that there are many local residents who care passionately about helping others less fortunate than themselves. Sadly, against this backdrop, I just couldn’t get out of my mind the issues of what has happened to the supported housing previously supplied and managed by the Winchester Churches Housing Group (Keystone) which was a sister company to The Beacon.

The Chronicle has covered this issue in some depth (Chronicle, September 26) and the recent editorial was very poignant and powerful.

Keystone was taken over by Bournemouth Churches Housing Association (BCHA) back in 2013 and BCHA took over the management of around 33 separate units of accommodation, all in Winchester.

Since 2019 BCHA has divested itself of pretty much all of the Keystone accommodation and presently there are only three tenants remaining and all of them have received Section 21 No Fault eviction orders.  

On September 27, I attended the BCHA AGM in Poole and had a chance to question BCHA over their actions. I do understand that BCHA has made a strategic decision to stop working in Hampshire, hence why they are selling all their property. The fact that they paid nothing for the Keystone accommodation may well be the fault of the trustees of Keystone for not putting in conditions to protect their property from being sold.

It’s commendable that both the Beacon and Trinity are looking to increase the amount of accommodation available for the homeless however as Winchester has already lost 30 units (and will be losing the 29 units at West View House in Hyde Gate), this is a case of one step forward and two steps back.   

Sadly, all I can do is support the remaining BCHA tenants with their legal defence against their eviction orders and keep my fingers crossed that Winchester City Council will buy the remaining BCHA property.

Something has gone tragically wrong with what has happened to Keystone and there are some serious lessons to be learnt. Surely this isn’t the way to solve Winchester’s homelessness!

Ian Tait,

Romsey Road,

Winchester

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