A bold salvo
‘I can point to one or two things I have definitely learned by being hard up. I shall never again…subscribe to the Salvation Army.’ So wrote perhaps the most famous resident of a Salvation Army hostel in 1933 in Down and Out in Paris and London.
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Life in the Salvation Army’s 97 properties may have changed somewhat since George Orwell’s day, but the move we reveal this week by the SA to rebrand its hostels as ‘lifehouses’ is surely the most ambitious in that time. It is as bold a move as it is easily mocked - and perhaps deservedly so if it represented nothing more than a new logo being produced.
However, the SA deserves credit for attempting to remove some of the stigma (no doubt helped by Mr Orwell) for its residents. More importantly, it is ensuring the new name comes with an updated service - new training programmes and 900 posts on community projects to help residents back to work. The penniless Mr Orwell of 1933 would surely approve.