JARVIE Plant equipment is playing an important role in the creation of Scotland’s first homeless village.
Situated in Edinburgh’s Granton district, the development will comprise ten ‘nest houses’, aimed at providing a safe living environment for up to 20 homeless people each year. They will also be able to access support such as employment advice and counselling.
The idea came from Social Bite co-founder Josh Littlejohn. Social Bite is a social enterprise sandwich shop that employs homeless people.
As part of the construction works at the 1.5 acre site, Jarvie Plant has delivered a three tonne excavator, 24’ accommodation unit, 20’ safe store and an island welfare unit. The Grangemouth-based firm also recently donated a furnished 12’ static accommodation unit to Social Bite’s ‘Sleep in the Park’ event in Princes Street Gardens, which was designed to raise cash to tackle homelessness in Scotland
Jarvie Plant director, David Jarvie, said, “Homelessness in Scotland is a terrible affliction on our nation so it is great to see an enterprise like Social Bite make strides to combat it with such a forward thinking development. We were only too happy to lend our support to the Sleep in the Park event and the kit on site in Granton will be crucial to the ground works and meet vital welfare needs.”
The first units are expected to be completed in Spring this year, with the first residents moving in shortly afterwards.
