A WEST Belfast homeless charity is "urgently seeking" new premises following last week's arson attack.
The Welcome Organisation, which provides services for those experiencing homelessness, has been operating from their Townsend Street location for about 12 years. Last week, the building was badly damaged when a stolen car was rammed into the shutters of its building and set alight.
Graffiti then appeared on a nearby wall warning workmen not to carry out repairs.
The Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) in the Lower Falls said that the relationship between the local community and the Welcome Organisation had broken down and called for it to be re-located. Residents had previously complained about drug use in the vicinity of the premises by some service users.
Following consultation with the local community, The Welcome Organisation have closed their drop-in service at the site and will move away from the area as soon as possible.
Speaking to the Andersonstown News, Jude Whyte, Chair of the Welcome Organisation, explained: "After consultation with the local community this week, the drop-in part of our service is now indefinitely closed. We are also urgently seeking new premises.
"It is also too dangerous here now for staff. After last week’s attack, it doesn’t look like a lot of damage from the outside but with electrical and plumbing work, this will cost tens of thousands of pounds to fix.
"We are a relatively small charity. Eighty per cent of our funding is from the government. We raise the other 20 per cent ourselves."
Jude said he recognises wholeheartedly the views of the local community and has a simple message for them: "I am sorry."
"The attack last week has been seismic for us. We have got to the stage where we have lost the consent of the local community," he added.
"We don’t want to be an uninvited guest anymore. It is time to take our project elsewhere.
"I apologise to the local community. They are at the end of their tether and I feel we owe it to them to re-locate. The issue is anti-social behaviour. My message to the community is I am sorry.
"The reality is no community wants this level of anti-social and inappropriate behaviour associated with people with high levels of drug addiction anywhere near them and I totally understand that. We have engaged with representatives from the community but this is a marriage that has broken down.
"The buck stops with me ultimately and I apologise for any hurt we have inflicted on this community."
Jude says the search is underway for new premises but recognises how tough it will be to find somewhere suitable.
"I would also say that this problem will not go away by us moving," he continued. "This city of ours is drowning in drugs. It is everywhere.
"I am dealing not with middle-aged men who have an addiction to alcohol. I am dealing with young women and young men, some of them not even in their twenties who are addicted to some of the strongest opiates out there such as Fentanyl, Diamorphine, Crack Cocaine, Heroin, Spice, to name but a few.
"By re-locating, it will not resolve the problem. I don't know where we can go to have the support of any community. At the same time, it does not warrant driving a car into the building and setting it on fire.
"If that had have been during the day, someone could have been killed."
