Changing the System a tiny bit at a time.
A truly client centred way of working
Ethan doesn’t fit in to the system in which I work — plain and simple. He is not a ‘normal’ client and is definitely not complex need.
There is much talk in my sector about the need to support those who have multiple and complex needs. People who have suffered social exclusion and disadvantage throughout their lives and who struggle to navigate their way through the homelessness system.
For these people, whilst it is very difficult to find suitable accommodation and to provide the support they need, there is at least a network of specialist supported housing and skilled staff to help them to make changes in their lives.
But for people like Ethan, the system fails. Let me give you a little bit of background on his situation:
Ethan is 21 years old and his family kicked him out — he was suddenly on the streets, ill-equipped, scared and alone. Ethan was not born in the UK although he has been here since he was three years old. He has been educated here and if you met him you would assume he was a British citizen. But he isn't. His parents did not apply for citizenship before he was 18 and the second he achieved this milestone, he lost the right to automatically apply.
He was able to receive job seekers allowance and work but his status means he is not entitled to housing benefit and without this, he can’t access supported housing.
Normally, someone arrives saying they are homeless, subject to vacancies, we can move them straight into the night shelter. To pay for the buildings and some of the high level of support provided, we then claim housing benefit. This equates to £212.59 per week in our shelter. If you are unable to claim HB you are liable for this amount yourself — and this is the situation Ethan finds himself in.
But what makes Ethan even more unusual is that he has a place at university and will not budge from his goal of getting there regardless of being homeless.
Due his situation, he missed the whole first term at Uni and now there isn’t any campus accommodation left. He needs £1500 to pay for the deposit and rent in advance to secure a room in a private rented house. He hasn’t got this money and isn’t entitled to help to get it.
Ethan is doing his bit and working two full time jobs — he works in a well known fast food restaurant from 8am to 7pm daily — with only one day off a week and then at bar from 9.30pm until 3.30am three days a week. Over 80 hours worked each week. He is focused and determined. He says he will rough sleep if he has to as nothing will stop him from achieving his goal of getting to university.
As an organisation, we try to offer support which has the clients needs at the centre of all we do. We try not to be prescriptive and instead work flexibly whilst adhering to the terms of our contract.
So, we either leave Ethan to work two jobs and sleep in the cold or we find away to bend the system — our morals dictate that we have to do the latter. But it is hard to challenge the way the sector has worked for many years; there are tried and tested pathways and processes in place and for most part, they meet most needs adequately.
A year ago, I moved offices and my old one remains empty. We have not been able to turn it into a room for a client as our contract stipulates how many rooms are funded. I have an empty room and a person who is homeless — why not join the two? I check that the room passes habitation laws and we offer Ethan the space. We don’t charge him rent — what is the point as he needs every penny he can get. We provide his food, his washing power, his toiletries and everything else he needs through donations. We write letters to his university saying he will be there soon. We do everything we can to help him despite the system not being set up to help people like him. And all the while, he keeps working and keeps saving.
Today, Ethan came to see me and announced that he has enough money saved and will be flying the nest in a weeks time. I feel like a proud parent.
Helping him has been much harder than you would imagine and at times I have felt that we have broken every rule (in reality, we haven’t), I questioned if we were showing favouritism and I worried that he was spinning a yarn and was happily going to squat in our premises for eternity.
But what we did was to take Ethan at face value, listened to his story and found a way to manoeuvre outside the normal processes and it worked. Ethan is at the start of a new journey which I hope includes happiness and I am proud to played a small part in this.
We have now decided to keep that room for situations like this — for clients who can’t pay the full rent or who’s situation doesn't fit the normal model. Hopefully we will be able to help more ‘Ethan’s’ in the future.
Most of the time I speak out about the difficulties in finding accommodation for complex need clients and that funding has been stripped back so far that the support services cannot cope, but now I want to speak out about the ‘average Joe’ who has fallen through the safety net, doesn’t meet the criteria and for whom the system fails. In one tiny way, we changed the system and succeeded.
Good luck Ethan!
