Somali community fear they may be forced out after group receives eviction notice
A VOLUNTARY group which supports thousands of Somalis in Northampton, is protesting against a two-week eviction notice.
The Northamptonshire Somali Development Foundation (NSDF) has been based at the Rainbow Centre, in Sheep Street, for four years.
But there are fears the foundation, which has 4,000 active members, could be lost as the committee has not had time to look for a new venue.
Secretary Cabdik Cabdi said: “We’re not just dealing with an individual, it’s a whole community. Everyone I’ve spoken to is saying they don’t know where to go and that breaks my heart as a leader.
“This is the only centre we’ve got between the 8,000 Somalis living in Northampton.”
The group received the eviction notice last month from Northampton’s Afro Caribbean Elders Society (ACES), which occupies the ground floor of the centre and subcontracts the space to NSDF. The letter informed the group it would be evicted on January 6, despite the contract running until September this year.
Regular users of the centre refused to leave yesterday, when Mr Cabdi said he did not know on what grounds the group was being evicted, and he was preparing to take legal action.
He said: “If it doesn’t work, all the community will be misplaced and we are back to square one. There will be no centre for the community. We will be totally gutted.”
The centre, which is open every day, offers social and prayer space, a soup kitchen, and supports both the young and elderly. It does not receive any government funding and relies on members to raise £500 every month to cover the rent, plus utility bills.
Mr Cabdi felt the foundation, which he said had helped to reduce town centre crime, had been singled out, as the Northampton Retail Crime Initiative, which also uses the centre, had not been asked to leave.
A spokeswoman for ACES did not wish to comment.