Our mission is to provide accommodation, support, advice, training and resettlement services to single homeless people in Cornwall. Within resources available, we strive to provide the best quality of service possible. Our primary aim is to provide these services to people aged 16-65 years for whom no provision is made within the community, either statutory or otherwise.
For advice and support on any homelessness issue please call our Advice Line on 01872 264153 and one of our Resettlement team will be able to help you.
If you have seen someone sleeping rough, please call 0300 500 0914 or visit www.streetlink.org.uk. All reports of rough sleepers in the Cornwall area will be passed to our Assertive Street Outreach Team who aim to make contact with those rough sleepers within 48 hours.
Our telephone helpline provides information and support on drug use and anyone affected by it. We also offer a counselling service for those affected by addiction issues. Please call 01872 241952 for confidential help and advice or to speak to one of our counsellors.
If you are homeless and need to see a doctor, the Cornwall Health for Homeless Service runs GP and nurse surgeries at the St Petroc’s Resource Centres in Truro and Penzance, and also at Coastline in Camborne.
The single homeless are those who, more often than not, fall outside the responsibility of statutory authorities. Very often they are sleeping rough and may have a range of difficulties including drug or alcohol dependency, mental ill health, relationship problems or an offending lifestyle, which contribute to their homelessness and social exclusion. St Petroc's provides a diverse range of services with the aim of ensuring that each and every homeless individual is given the opportunity and support to rebuild their lives.
Tomorrow I will be accommodated in a room in Penzance. I would like to thank the staff for their help and I cannot emphasise how helpful they have been. I did not know about Breadline when I tried to find accommodation here before so I have been really pleased with the help and advice I have been given. The staff have given me food, advice, support and I have been able to access a hot shower which I spent a lot of time in when I first used it which the staff now joke with me about as they thought I was never coming out! Anj and Mo are helping me to fill in the housing benefit form and have given me a voucher for the food bank for three weeks to help me cope financially as I have had to pay my own deposit so this will really help me out. I wanted to write this to show my appreciation for the help I have been given as I know the staff do not always get thanks for the amazing job they do helping all of the homeless people. Thank You
Since finding out about St Petroc’s, I have had lots of help. I was on the streets in Truro and I’d go to the day centre every day. The staff were nice, helped me with clothes and stuff, and gave me some good advice. That’s how I ended up here and I can honestly say this is the cleanest shared house/hostel I have ever been in, and I have been in many. The staff here are good – fair but firm. If there are any disputes, they’re dealt with. It’s a nice place to live.
Thank you for the care and support of St Petroc’s staff - Andy and Helen (the house managers), and Katie the social work student. They have put a lot of time and effort into helping me into my own flat, and also in the support of helping me towards getting a rescue dog, Betty. Helen has helped with my benefits as I would not have known how to do it, and also helped me with filling in forms. Katie has supported me emotionally as well as helping with paperwork, getting bus pass ID. Andy has also helped with emotional support and paperwork as well as with the council. My stay in the Bodmin house over the last 3 months was comfortable and I was looked after - full of support all the way.
I was back on the streets in Bodmin having got into a dry house. Having arrived at the house, drunk on several occasions, had no choice but to ask me to leave really, so that was it. The first night back in Camborne I slept in the shop doorway there. I was really cold. That one night was a sobering thought. I've been back in the house ever since. I brought a lot of things away in my head that are helping to make me realise what I need to do to keep healthy but I will still drink. I'm not at the stage I was before where as soon as I got money in my pocket I had to go and blow it all on drink. I'm in a really good place. Can't remember feeling in such a good place for a long time. I've lived a full and enjoyable life. I have achieved more things than most blokes have even dreamed of. I'm not saying that's a good thing. I don't see it as a bad thing. But I am what I am.
I have lived in so many different places, I've lived rough and when I say rough, I mean jagged. If half the people in the world suddenly had some kind of epiphany about how they treat and affect other people in their life, I truly believe that these Godforsaken towns and cities that we live in would become almost bearable. ...my heart keeps inside it the sorrow of a million and more forgotten sons and daughters that reside among the back alleys in their sleeping bags and cardboard homes. These melancholy and missing children of this once amazing nation are inevitably lost and forgotten in co-op coffins bought by the state without even a single mournful tear between them. The cold night and chills takes them and never judges; then sickness and alcohol, drugs and depression become the causes and blame as we walk by them on our way back home. I'm the first to say there's help if you want it but it's hard and you really have to take the strain and pull yourself on to your feet.
