The Moulding Foundation has agreed to donate £3.5 million to support the construction of the Embassy Village in Manchester – a new safe and secure community for the city’s homeless and vulnerable men. The donation will fund the construction of the project, which will start later this year and is expected to complete in 2023.

The project will provide 40 new purpose-built homes and transforms a derelict site below the railway arches between the Bridgewater Canal and River Irwell, into a housing-led community with a village hall, lots of green space, mini allotments to grow vegetables and a multi-use sports area.

The Embassy Village will help Manchester’s most vulnerable men get off the street and reintegrate back into society by putting high-quality housing and wrap around support at the heart of the solution.  The village hall will become a community hub with residents receiving one-to-one training and mentoring to help equip them with a range of life skills, including shopping, budgeting and cooking; as well as support to help get them into full-time employment.

“We are hugely proud to be supporting Embassy Village with this incredible project, helping to reduce homelessness in Greater Manchester. The village will be transformational; in addition to safe housing, it will give residents the life skills, community support and access to the resources needed to lead thriving and healthy lives” Jodie Moulding, The Moulding Foundation Founder & Chair.

Embassy Co-Founder and Director, Sid Williams: “To receive this extremely generous donation from The Moulding Foundation is just incredible and puts us in a position to get the village built sooner than we had expected.

The latest government figures show that Manchester has the second highest number of people sleeping rough in England. This project is critical in helping us transform the way homelessness is tackled in our city, providing a long-term and sustainable solution. We’re creating a supportive community where we help our residents into work and get used to managing a home, and this means we’ll be able to help four times as many people as we currently do.”