Homeless and rough sleepers
People become homeless for a whole range of complex and overlapping reasons.
Helping someone out of homelessness is often about more than putting a roof over their head. However, ensuring there is a supply of accessible and affordable housing is critical to prevent and resolve homelessness.
Supported housing provides a lifeline for homeless people who are at a point in their lives where they would struggle to live independently. They help address rough sleeping and the barriers which can prevent vulnerable people from accessing the services.
But keeping someone off the streets is only the first step. To break the cycle of homelessness, accommodation services focus on empowering people to move on with their lives and achieve sustainable, long term recovery.
We work with a number of Homeless Providers across our areas enabling them to support our customers within our larger shared accommodation stock.
Case study
Dave's Story
SPEAR is a charity for people experiencing homelessness in SW London including Richmond, Merton, Sutton, Kingston and Wandsworth.
Dave is a lifelong Richmond borough resident, having lived in Teddington all his life. He experienced homelessness himself when he was young after a troubled childhood. He struggled with drinking problems for 32 years, particularly after being made redundant from his job as a senior operations clerk for a courier company.
It was shortly after this that Dave decided to stop drinking and find a more fulfilling career having been inspired by the people who helped him with his own recovery. He signed up for a college course in Health and Social Care and started looking into volunteering roles in order to gain relevant experience.
An opportunity came up to volunteer as a receptionist for SPEAR at our main hostel, Penny Wade House, which really appealed particularly given Dave's relevant past experience and his connection to the local area. The role involved much more than just general reception duties as he had lots of dealings with residents and provided individual support to them. Dave also did an outreach shift on a weekly basis. He describes loving his work with SPEAR “with a passion”.
Dave advanced from his role as a volunteer receptionist to a trainee project worker, and soon after successfully applied for an advanced apprenticeship at SPEAR’s Penny Wade hostel. The programme allows three individuals a year to work towards a level 3 diploma in health and adult social care.
After completing the apprenticeship Dave continued working for SPEAR as a locum worker at Penny Wade House where he was assigned his own cases and clients and before he knew it, he had joined the team full time as a support and resettlement officer.
Dave held that position for little over a year and was then appointed as team leader for Outreach in Sutton. He managed the team but would also go out late at night and in the early morning to respond to reports of rough sleepers. In addition, Dave was a wonderful ambassador promoting SPEAR's work by going to schools and companies to talk about his journey from homelessness to independence.
Dave decided to leave SPEAR in 2020 after five memorable years with our organisation. He describes his work as “immensely rewarding” and wants to help and support people experiencing homelessness on their journey back to independent living.
Now 9 years dry from alcohol, Dave admits that working for SPEAR has changed his life, helped him grow up and keeps him strong as he has people depending on him. He feels that his experience at SPEAR has given him both the experience and confidence he needed to pursue his ambitions and overcome his past difficulties.
