A YMCA in North Shields has applied to North Tyneside Council to expand its residential facilities.
The registered charity wishes to absorb the former Featonby's auction house, located at 50-50a Bedford Street, and convert the first floor of the building into three three-bedroom flats. It also intends for the ground floor to be altered into a retail and community space along with a café.
The apartments would also contain en suits, living rooms, and kitchen facilities. A common room has also been applied for.
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The YMCA currently houses people in the Sir John Knott House, adjacent to a former North Shields town centre auction house.
The North Tyneside YMCA's website states: "YMCA is a local charity dedicated to helping transform the lives of vulnerable young people throughout Tyneside. We do this by providing a number of services for the public which help sustain our charitable outcomes.
"We currently have 36 young people in supported accommodation and provide ongoing education and training to help them learn new skills and thrive as individuals."
The proposals also include designs to renovate and modernise the building. Such renovations include repainting brickwork and, vertical aluminium fins for existing windows.
In addition to providing more specialist accommodation, the YMCA also posits the redevelopment of the building can contribute positively to the neighbourhood.
Intersect Architects, working on behalf of the YMCA, stated in documents submitted to the council: "Community safety can be achieved through increasing natural surveillance and promoting a sense of ownership and responsibility. The provision of residential accommodation will increase the natural surveillance of the streets, providing a secure environment for the residents.
"A manned reception area to the Church Way entrance will also ensure security as well as physical measures such as secure doors and windows."
The North Tyneside YMCA was founded in 1870. The organisation was originally located in the Sons of Temperance Hall on Norfolk Street.
It moved its premises to Bedford Street in 1920 and then to its current location on Church Way in 1938.
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