When Darren Rowe opened the door to his new flat at The Harbour Project in Canning Town, he thought he'd won the lottery. After years of homelessness—sleeping in sheds, enduring violence in hostels—he finally had a place to call his own.
"Is this mine?" he remembers asking. "That day I moved in was fantastic. We shouldn't have one of these places in every city, we should have one in every town."
The Harbour Project, launched by charity Your Place in May 2025, represents a revolutionary approach to tackling homelessness. It combines the Housing First model—providing stable housing before addressing other issues—with communal living spaces designed to combat the isolation that often derails recovery.
"A lot of people who had some social needs were maintaining day-to-day life because they had the staff team, but as soon as they lived on their own, they would become very isolated, very depressed," explains Your Place CEO Amanda Dubarry. "They would go back to that street family."
The project's 23 self-contained flats, rented at just £110 monthly including bills, surround shared communal spaces and a kitchen. Residents have their own secure homes but can choose to connect with neighbours—a crucial element missing from traditional Housing First programmes.
The results have exceeded expectations. Over 100 referrals came in for the 23 spaces. Rowe is now training for his CSCS card to return to construction work. On Christmas Day, staff shared videos of residents dancing together over dinner—scenes that moved Dubarry to tears.
"The overwhelming positive experience and life-changing sense of safety," she says. "You can't really express in words how significant that is."
The Labour government has taken notice, featuring The Harbour Project in its national homelessness strategy. For Rowe, the impact is simpler to describe: "I'm near the top of the ladders and I just don't have to look down anymore because these guys are holding it for me."