Elgood & Portman House

Elgood/Portman House is a medium to low support hostel offering 40 temporary beds to homeless women who are between the ages of 18-59 years.

Each resident has a single, fully furnished room with a hand basin.  Residents share the facilities such as the kitchen and bathroom with 3 to 6 other residents.  There are two TV lounges, one of which is non-smoking.

Our team provide a level of individual 24-7 support to enable the women to overcome the barriers they face in progressing to independent living.  This means delivering a holistic programme that uses the expertise of the staff team, other staff within the Marylebone Project and external agencies.

Our other main objective is to resettle residents into the wider community and despite a serious shortage of move-on accommodation, we have been able to resettle a large number of women successfully back into the community.

Every resident is assigned a key worker when they arrive in the hostel who works closely with the resident to help her to find her feet. Once the resident is comfortable with her surroundings, the key worker will help the resident to move towards greater independence.  This involves finding appropriate move-on accommodation when that person is ready.

Other issues covered will be training, employment, education, and budgeting, personal hygiene, counselling or accessing external professional support.  Residents can be referred to other agencies or specialist services where necessary. 

The Facts

During the last four years Elgood House has seen about 450 homeless women come through our door. Despite the lack of housing and limited resources, progression has been as follows:

277	Resettled back into the community
67	Rejoined family and friends
40	Still in the hostel
7	Moved to other institutions offering higher support
64	Gained full time employment

New Developments

There is a severe shortage of supported accommodation and housing for pregnant young women in London. Each year we refer around four pregnant women to bed and breakfast provision so we are now looking to develop a 24-7 Young Parent Unit (Mother and Baby Unit) to assist vulnerable young parents who experience difficulties during the early years of bringing up their children.

Elgood & Portman House, 84 Bell Street, London NW1 6SP
Tel: 020 7402 4971, E-mail: eph@maryleboneproject.org.uk