Catalogue description Resettlement Agency: Camberwell Resettlement Unit: Records (CBW Series)

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Details of AST 45
Reference: AST 45
Title: Resettlement Agency: Camberwell Resettlement Unit: Records (CBW Series)
Description:

This series contains records of the Camberwell Resettlement Unit including minutes, correspondence and press cuttings.
Date: 1977-1993
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Former reference in its original department: CBW series
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Department of Health and Social Security, Camberwell Resettlement Unit, 1968-1988

Department of Social Security, Camberwell Resettlement Unit, 1988-1992
Physical description: 53 file(s)
Access conditions: Open unless otherwise stated
Immediate source of acquisition:

From 2002 Department of Social Security
Selection and destruction information: Records selected under PRO selection criteria 2.2.1.5 as it shows the processes for dealing with homeless men before the resettlement unit's closure in 1985 and also future plans with charities and other bodies to handle the effects of its closure.
Accruals: Series is accruing
Administrative / biographical background:

The Camberwell Resettlement Unit was the largest Reception Centre for homeless men in the country. It was originally built in 1879 as a workhouse with 500 beds. Estimates vary greatly regarding its bed capacity during the 1980s, from 550 to 980 (a peak figure as high as 1,100 has also been quoted). The figure certainly fluctuated and it may also depend on whether figures for 'permanent' residents are added to figures for the overnight dormitory stayers.

The Camberwell Resettlement Unit closed in 1985 and the replacement scheme involved using small hostels run by voluntary organisations. The Department of Health and Social Security agreed to fund 555 bed spaces in London in partnership with the Housing Corporation and the Department of the Environment.

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