Legacy of late mayor honoured through new homeless support building
The legacy of a much-loved former city mayor has been honoured through a new homeless support centre named in his memory.
The Mayor of Wolverhampton, city councillors, homelessness partners, friends and family of Peter Bilson were at Bond House on Monday, March 6 for an official ceremony to re-name the building Peter Bilson House.
The newly refurbished building on Bond Street has been transformed into additional accommodation and a space for multi-agency support for vulnerable people and people with a history of rough-sleeping and will be run by Housing and Homeless service P3 when it opens to clients in the coming weeks.
It was a chance for those attending to remember the long serving councillor, who died in February 2020, aged 66. He had been a councillor since 1982 and was mayor from 1999-2000.
There were speeches from Mayor of Wolverhampton Sandra Samuels, P3 director of services Rebecca Harrington-Leigh and the councillor’s son James Bilson, who spoke of his own pride at seeing the new building.
Following the speeches, Councillor Bilson’s wife Nicky officially unveiled a plaque which officially named the building Peter Bilson House and was joined by son James, her daughter Emma and other members of the family, including six grandchildren, for photos with the plaque.
Both James and Mrs Bilson spoke about how proud they were to see his legacy of tackling homelessness and rough sleeping in the city honoured through the new building.
James said: “The family are incredibly proud to see dad’s name above the building and to have such a facility which serves people who are looking to get into supported accommodation and back into mainstream accommodation is very fitting for the work that dad did over so many years.
“We’ve just been touched by the comments from everyone and the reactions from his colleagues and members of the public as we knew him as a kind and caring and lovely man, but it’s nice to hear everyone say so many nice things about him.
“We know that he wouldn’t have sought out recognition or plaudits or anything like that for his work, but it he was to have anything foisted upon him, it’s this building and the services they provide here are exactly what he would wanted.”
Nicky Bilson said: “It’s been a really emotional day for me and I know that if Peter was looking down, he would be so full of pride. His values and principles will be in this house and he would have loved today and seeing the people who are going to live in here and have support here would have made him so proud.”
The new Peter Bilson House will provide 34 units of accommodation, including six accessible apartments with walk-in bathroom, kitchen and bedroom, and and will be the location of the Single Persons Accommodation Project.
It will also include emergency accommodation and settled accommodation units and will offer bespoke multi-agency support for the vulnerable people in the units.
P3 director of services Rebecca Harrington-Leigh said the new building had been a long time coming, having worked on it for more than 18 months, and said it followed the ethos of Peter Bilson.
She said: “Peter was a councillor who had the ethos of vulnerable people having access to affordable, good quality homes and for us as an organisation, that’s very much in line with our values and our mission. It’s something close to our hearts and for the city of Wolverhampton and Peter was a person who did a lot for that cause. so it’s a real honour to be part of it.”
Councillor Bhupinder Singh Ghakal added it was also made a speech in his role as cabinet member for City Assets and Housing and said it was a huge privilege to be there to honour the memory of a much missed colleague.
He said: “It’s a huge privilege to be here to honour the memory of the late, great Peter Bilson and meet his lovely family as well.“I’ve had the chance to take a tour and this building is stunning and perfect for homeless and vulnerable people and sends out a message that we care about about our residents and want to help our residents.“It’s a fitting tribute to be here and what other fitting tribute could you give to someone who spent nearly 40 years of their life serving people and remember that we will all be gone one day, but the memory of Peter Bilson will live on forever.”
