Helping London’s Homeless in Winter
Changing lives, one person at a time
SPEAR London is a British charity, helping people overcome the challenges of homelessness. They have a resettlement and tenancy support team, a health link service, and they assist people to learn and develop new skills for a better life.
Lisa Moodie is the Outreach Operations Manager who takes to the streets with her team to find and help people who are sleeping rough and who could benefit from the charity’s assistance.
The outreach teams go out in the early mornings and late evenings to find those sleeping rough, hoping to make connections and build trust, so together, they can agree a plan of action to get people the support they need, and eventually, to find them accommodation.
Lisa explains, “Sometimes people aren’t ready for accommodation right away. So, we make a plan for a pathway off the street. If they have a chaotic substance abuse problem, they may need to go to detox and rehab before they’re ready to go into accommodation.
“My team go out and do a minimum of two shifts a week during antisocial hours, trying to find people who are new to rough sleeping. We talk to them and try to help them agree a way forward.
“We have some clients in emergency accommodation. They were given the accommodation at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and we’ve worked with them to help them sustain their tenancy.”
Developing trust
“We also build relationships with people who don’t want to come off the streets, working to build trust so that in the long term, we can help them to resolve their situation.
“There’s no point putting someone in accommodation if they can’t sustain it, so we have to look at any mental or physical health issues that are preventing them from accessing accommodation long-term.”
The charity has supported accommodation, a hostel for young people, and a homeless health link. They proactively make referrals to other organisations, to support individuals with their health issues.
“We also have a skills development team,” Lisa continues, “where they can access training and volunteering, employment and education. We have lots of ways to support people, and we want them to be fulfilled and feel empowered to manage and sustain their accommodation.
“We’re only a pay cheque away from homelessness”
“There are lots of different reasons why people find themselves on the streets. We’re all only one pay cheque away from that happening.
“We do have people who are homeless because of addiction. But other people can simply lose their jobs and not be able to pay the rent, so they end up rough sleeping.
“Lots of people sleep rough because of relationship breakdowns and mental health crises. For many people, their addiction is self-medication for a mental health crisis.”
Homelessness happens for many reasons
“Homelessness happens for many reasons — sometimes, it’s just that people don’t know where to go, or are too proud to ask for help. We can link them to a network of support, and we have a trauma-informed care approach, which means we’ll help people make informed choices and we’ll support them, even if we don’t agree with their choices.
“It’s always incredibly rewarding to see people go into their accommodation for the first time. But other things that are rewarding are the small things: the client who finally agrees to go for a coffee and chat, to allow us to help them, after telling us to go away for months and months.
“The client who’s so unwell they won’t acknowledge their illness — then they finally succumb to our persistence and get the help they need. It’s great to see someone finally entering the Job Centre to get on benefits when they’ve not engaged with services at all. It’s good to see people feeling empowered to make changes to their lives — changes that will improve their circumstances.
Seen as a problem
“They face huge challenges and we try to help them as much as we can. One of the biggest challenges is that they are invisible to many people and services — or they are seen as a problem. We try to resolve this by educating people.
“These are human beings with traumatic backgrounds — they’ve experienced some awful traumas in their lives. If you have two people with a crisis issue, it’s so much harder for a person on the streets to get help.
“We’ve had reports of female rough sleepers getting urinated on recently. People go out for a few drinks in the evening. They get tanked up and think it’s funny to pee on someone experiencing homelessness. They are more likely to be assaulted.
“It’s a very insecure and unstable life where you can’t control your environment. We have strong links with community safety, police, social services, and mental health services. We work closely with agencies and do the best we can to help.
“At the start of the pandemic, the issue of rough sleeping was highlighted and it opened our partner agencies’ eyes to the complexity of these cases. Drug and alcohol teams gained a greater awareness of some of the issues facing homeless people, and it’s helped us to achieve more joined up working, but it’ll always be a work in progress. We aim to make people’s time on the streets as brief as possible.”
Local outreach teams across the UK can be alerted to rough sleepers on www.streetlink.org.uk
Services offered by SPEAR
SPEAR offers a range of services. There’s a resettlement and tenancy support team, who help find accommodation to suit each individual’s needs. Some people are placed in a complex needs hostel, where they get tailored support. Others are placed in houses of multiple occupancy, young people’s hostels, domestic violence shelters, or in long-term accommodation.
There’s a Homeless Health Link Service, which helps people access healthcare, understand their options, and directs them to appropriate services.
The Community Development Team focuses on helping people learn and develop new skills for life. They help people get access to education, volunteering opportunities, and to find employment.
Find out more: www.spearlondon.org
© Susie Kearley 2023. All Rights Reserved.
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