Social Bite opens village for homeless people in Rutherglen

A £3m village for homeless people has opened in South Lanarkshire. Harriet Gardens in Rutherglen will cater for 15 people at a time, with each person staying in a nest home - meaning a compact, modular building - and sharing a gym, community hub and cooking space with others in the village. The new site, which was built on disused land that was formerly a saw mill, has been created by charity Social Bite and South Lanarkshire Council. It is the second built in Scotland, and the first established in the west. Charity founder Josh Littlejohn told BBC Scotland News that more villages could help Scotland's homelessness crisis, letting people get used to owning their own property. The village will be managed by charity partner the Salvation Army, who will provide round the clock support on site, with several people expected to begin moving in over the next two days. Littlejohn said that a lot of homeless hostels in Scotland are no longer fit for purpose and lead to people being trapped "in a cycle of homelessness". He added: "I'd love to work with local or national government, in Scotland and the UK, and have more of these built in places where people are trapped in these homeless BnBs