Catford Girls' School

Marsha Phoenix House by Tanya Randall

Sybil Phoenix MBE

Life in the Shoes of Sybil

A Profile of Sybil Phoenix

MBE for Sale

First Experience of England

Helping Build a Better Millennium

Sybil's Faith

Poems on Homelessness

Tragedy Strikes

The Deptford Fire

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Marsha Phoenix House

The house is on Tressilian Road, Brockley. It is two Victorian Houses joined together. It can accommodate 21 girls. Inside the house it has five single bedrooms, seven double bedrooms, five bathrooms, a laundry room, a communal kitchen, dining room, a lounge, a quiet room and a computer room. The garden is huge with vegetable patches, space for summer barbecues and a studio used for dance classes and leisure activities. There is a dark room for photography classes. Residents have a pay telephone for their use inside the house.

The vital shelter is in urgent need of 56 new double glazed windows, besides replacements of household furniture and kitchen equipment.

That sexual abuse can be a cause of homelessness has only been acknowledged in recent years. Research in the U.S.A. and Britain on the effects of sexual abuse on women's self-esteem shows it to be a cause of major depression, phobia and panic disorders, as well as of substance abuse. Survivors in mixed hostels feel threatened and unsafe and the staff do not always listen to them. They need specialist provision in hostels for women only, such as Marsha Phoenix House and Erlanger Road.