Homeless charity Anchor House has launched an appeal to help it raise �9.3 million to redvelop its 50-year-old centre and provide new facilities for those in need.

As part of its ‘Home and Hope Appeal’ the charity, which is based in Barking Road, Canning Town, wants to provide new education, training and rehabilitation facilities for its homeless residents and local community.

The development will also include 25 new transitional “move-on” studio flats to help residents achieve a sustainable transition back into independent living, and a new training kitchen for people to gain catering qualifications.

Keith Fernett, Anchor House director, says the only way to break the cycle of homelessness is to address the root causes of why someone became homeless in the first place, which is the sole aim of the appeal.

He said: “Mental health, drug and alcohol abuse from as early as eight-years-old, reoffending and escape from war and rape from the Eritrean army –these are the types of problems our residents are facing,” he said.

“While the local community continues to contend with soaring unemployment, high levels of deprivation, teenage pregnancy and a second generation out of work.

“Our waiting list for new residents grows longer every day, but this development will ensure that over the next 50 years we will be able to support an extra 20,000 people in the community to turn their lives around.”

The charity has enlisted the help of an 18 member Appeal Board recruited from the business sector, including chair Michael Dawson (Chaucer plc) and vice chair, Simon Hall (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP).

It has also attracted a high calibre of support from its patrons, including Lord Patten, Lord Glasman, Rt. Hon Ann Widdecombe, Jeremy Paxman, Julie Etchingham, Barbara Windsor MBE, Barry McGuigan MBE, John Bird MBE, the Archbishops of Westminster and Southwark, the Bishop of Brentwood, Sir George Bull, Sir Christopher Benson and Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank.

For more information or to donate to the appeal visit www.anchorhouseuk.org or call (020) 7476 6062.