The Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) has awarded a Project Development Grant to East Belfast Mission to help develop 335 Newtownards Road into a social enterprise retail unit and affordable housing for individuals affected by homelessness.
AHF writes:
… This was one of 16 grant awards made in December, where projects across the UK were awarded funding totalling £205,880.
This red brick building dates back to the latter half of the 19th century, a period of rapid expansion in Belfast, when new homes were built to house workers coming from rural Ulster for the shipbuilding and linen manufacture industries. Located on Lower Newtownards Road, once the thriving industrial heartland of the city, it is one of the few surviving late-Victorian terraced houses in the area, the vast majority of which were demolished in the last half century. Today, a second-hand clothes shop uses the ground floor. However, the upper floors are vacant, inaccessible, and in a state of disrepair.
East Belfast Mission is a charity working towards the regeneration of east Belfast, one of the most deprived areas in Northern Ireland. Its activities include employability services, mental health services, and social enterprise projects. With an aim to create a society where everyone has a place to call home, the organisation also runs Hosford Homelessness Services, through which it supports people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
This particular project at 335 Newtownards Road is part of the Hosford Community Homes initiative. The plan is to create a social enterprise retail unit on the ground floor. Meanwhile, the disused upper floors will be refurbished and transformed into two apartments for individuals affected by homelessness. Hosford Homelessness Services will manage the accommodation, including the support needs of the tenants. The project will harness the heritage value of the building and tackle homelessness, while also contributing to the wider regeneration of the area, demonstrating the power of small, replicable projects to transform high streets.
The AHF grant was awarded through the Harnessing Heritage in Northern Ireland programme, made possible with funding from the Department for Communities and the Garfield Weston Foundation. It will fund revenue costs to support the development of this project, subsequently enabling East Belfast Mission to secure the final piece of funding and allowing capital works to begin.
