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"What would happen if SHSS wasn't there?"
There would be more homelessness, and more rough sleeping. Homelessness can have lots of causes: evictions, dysfunctional households, marital breakdowns, domestic abuse, threats of violence, house repossessions, addictions to alcohol, drugs and gambling, debt.
There are perhaps three main issues: the lack of supply of affordable accommodation, relationship breakdown, and addiction.
We don't just help with people who are homeless, our role starts with people who are in danger of becoming homeless, or those who are 'sofa surfing' as well as people who are sleeping in parks and gardens.
We are well known in the town as an organisation working at the coal face of homelessness. Our clients are often people in crisis, people who are very upset about their situation, perhaps even suicidal .. and that's real. One chap threw himself off a multi storey car park, leaving a note to us saying 'thank you for making my last four days bearable'.
We exist for people who fall through the gaps of provision, who don't meet a priority need.
We can help by providing a contact address for people, and we help with simple (but important) things, for instance, we offer laundry and shower facilities to people who engage with SHSS. Our day-services such as these are accessed by
around 600 people every year.
One of our services is the Winter Watch Emergency Night Accommodation Service. This is funded by Scarborough Borough Council and operates from October to March and provides emergency accommodation for the street homeless aged 16 + who are deemed not to be in priority need by Yorkshire Coast Homes.
So far from 1 October 2007 to 15 March 2008, this service has been accessed 264 times, and we've provided 378 emergency night accommodation for the majority of those people.
For example, a person came to Scarborough on the 2nd February and through Winter Watch was accommodated intermittently, notably on the worst stormy and cold nights we've had recently. On the other nights he slept in a tent. We helped him put in an application to Yorkshire Coast Homes and kept him going while they found somewhere for him. He moves into accommodation on Monday, and for him we've gathered a bed, furniture, a starter pack of food and toiletries .. and this is the sort of thing we do every day for people.
Imagine a house with nothing in it. No cooker, no curtains, no tin opener, no kettle, no bed, and no services .. no electricity. We help with that.
Imagine having only the clothes you stand up in. We help with that too.
It's not a 9-5 job. Another example from Winter Watch was someone who came to us having been beaten up. We weren't happy to put them into accommodation until they'd been seen by a doctor, so we accompanied them to A&E where they confirmed nothing was broken, and by eleven o'clock we'd got them into accommodation.
Another, a chap found by the police at the top of a cliff covered in mud. He was taken to the psychiatric wing at the hospital but there were no psychiatric problems, so he came through Winter Watch, we got him accommodation and established he didn't claim benefits. We got that sorted for him, and got it all backdated. He is now happy and living in a safe environment.
85% of our clients are male. Quite rightly there are often child maintenance payments they have to make, but that also makes things more difficult for them to get back on track.
"So how can people help you?"
We don't need furniture, we need money .. donations. We are a charity, a not for profit organisation. We have 10 volunteers and only 2 paid staff.
Another way people can help is by volunteering. Most of our team have been with us for a long time, Martin, for instance is a former teacher who's been with us for 6.5 years. He volunteers for 2 days a week. Ours is a happy working environment, we all get along well together.
Our volunteers are interested in helping someone other than themselves. Some are previous clients. One volunteer cleans our
offices and helps pack the emergency food packs. Another's a retired health worker who helps by talking with clients.
Some of our volunteers have used their experience as a stepping stone to other, higher profile jobs.
Another thing people don't think of is pets. We've had accommodation refused because a client owns a goldfish (if the tank fell over it would leak through to the flat underneath). Recently we've put some dogs into foster homes through the Dogs Trust or Blue Cross Services.
Another service we provide is the travel scheme, which again is funded by the local authority. People often escape to Scarborough, possibly with nothing, and find themselves stranded. They think because it's a holiday resort and getting accommodation will be easy, but they need a deposit. The travel scheme can pay the travel fare home or to friends.
Sometimes these are people just released from prison, they've done their time, and they need a fresh start. Every client is different, everyone has a story.
We also have a specialist service dealing with those over 50 years old.
'Where do you get your funding?'
Every local authority had to develop a homelessness strategy. Some provisions have been contracted out to other organisations. We are one of those organisations who provide those organisations who provide Winter Watch and the Travel Scheme.
Our 50+ scheme is funded by the lottery. However the funding comes to an end in July 2008. We shall endeavour to raise further funding in order to continue these services.
The day services are partly funded by the local authority, but also rely heavily on donations from trusts, charities, local businesses and residents as well as local churches who hold, for instance, carol services. We need about £65,000 a year.
We constantly battle against the public perception of homelessness. People think that everyone who is homeless is a drug addict, an alcoholic or a prisoner. Sure, some are, but we've helped lots of professionals too, architects, solicitors, computer designers, engineers. People who don't know how to claim benefits because they've never needed to.
We had one professional chap who had forgotten the year he was born, we had to research it with his school in York which thankfully had records by surname (not date of birth). We found his birthdate, and through that got his National Insurance number. Then we could backdate his pension and through that he got social housing.
Another problem area is people coming back from overseas.
'Why do you do this work?'
For humanitarian reasons. To care for my fellow man. We can help, we are rarely beaten .. we are quite unique in that regard. We like a challenge, and there's enormous job satisfaction in solving these problems and going home, being thankful for the home we have, and knowing we've helped.
Homelessness is an easy, slippery slope, it can affect anyone. A local company made a lot of people redundant recently, and some of those chaps were in accommodation that was only available to working people, so they had lost their job and became homeless too. Through Winter Watch we were able to find those people alternative accommodation.
Families who can't pay their mortgage. If they wrongly prioritise, for instance, paying a credit card debt and default on their mortgage they may end up homeless and they would be classed as making themselves intentionally homeless, so there's no help for them.
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