“Every day is different depending on the client”

I love my job and find it very rewarding. I see my role as being a consistent someone in a client’s life that is there to support them, as they can feel let down by other services they’ve accessed in the past.

The purpose of Housing First is to support clients to sustain a property, to try and overcome any addictions, manage their mental and physical health, and to engage with other members of the multidisciplinary team to support them to end the cycle of rough sleeping and to maintain their home.

The multidisciplinary team includes a nurse, occupational therapist, mental health workers, drug and alcohol workers from Change Grow Live (CGL), and probation services, all working under the Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) umbrella to give wrap-around support for our clients. The benefits of working in this way are that we can do joint visits with all the other services and clients get seen a lot quicker.

We normally see clients who have had long periods of rough sleeping and who have medium or high needs such as addiction and drug and/or alcohol misuse, mental and/or physical health conditions, and who may have not sustained properties in the past. They might often present with anxiety and mistrust services. Quite often they may struggle with the change from sleeping on the streets to having a roof over their head.

Every day is different depending on the client. Sometimes I’m supporting a client to arrange Direct Debits or to open a bank account, sometimes I’m arranging to do joint visits with colleaguesfrom the other services. Other times, I’ll be taking clients to their doctor’s or to the Jobcentre to support them with benefit appointments. I arrange these appointments with the clients so that the time and day are suitable for them.

I usually visit them in their homes, but sometimes we meet for coffee and have a chat at the café. I support my clients with letters they receive if they do not understand them, with budgeting, food shopping, and connect them to specialist services when their mental health is poor.

Although a lot of their appointments are prebooked there are times when some clients do not engage and may not be home because other priorities have come up for them. When this happens, I do ad hoc visits to their home and call them to make sure they are okay. We work at the client’s to maintain their accommodation and wellbeing with that wrap-around support from all the Rough Sleeping Initiative services (RSI) due to Housing First clients having complex needs.

When a client moves into a property for the first time we can apply for funding from the RSI budget and support our clients to get furniture items they don’t have for their homes. We can also get them a startup pack consisting of essential items like cutlery, plates, towels, bedding, dinner set, microwave etc.

As most of our clients have moved from the streets into a new home, it can be very daunting for clients to get used to four walls, so we also try to link them in with other projects depending on what they like to do such as gardening, woodwork, and cooking classes so they can make friends other than the street community they came to know while living on the streets.

It can be challenging and stressful at times with clients not being in when arranged or not engaging, especially if the client is not in a good place. Some clients do verbally express their frustrations out on us staff, but we do not take this personally and try to understand what the client is going through and will discuss what was said when the client is calm. I work with a great team and manager and have great support from my colleagues, especially if I have had a difficult or challenging day.

There are lots of great times in the job too, like seeing a client change their life choices and managing their home and life and watching them emerging like a beautiful butterfly.