15 months of support: the journey from homelessness to stability

It’s a Monday morning and I’m ready to send out a new vacancy from one of our employer partners to the homeless charities I work with in London. I know that once I press ‘send,’ it’ll be the start of an exciting journey.

Soon I start to get referrals and book in appointments. This will give me the chance to meet new and interesting people, people who will share their amazing stories, their barriers, their resilience and their dreams with me. Each story is different, fascinating and sad. Each candidate is unique, too, yet they all have a common goal: to find a new start that will enable them to not only get a job, but to improve their lives.

Sometimes I feel sorry that only one person will be chosen – and I am glad I’m not the one who will decide this! For people who aren’t chosen, I will keep them in my caseload and contact them if I have other suitable vacancies. For the new employee, it’s the start of a 15-month long journey with me based on trust, support and commitment. We work together to make sure their experience at work is successful by discussing and addressing any issues they might face, with their manager, and look for solutions.

For most employees with a background of homelessness, housing is their main issue. Some people are in temporary accommodation and eager to find a permanent place, but this can be a challenge. Perhaps it’s due to the lack of affordable housing, or because they aren’t entitled to housing benefits or access to social housing, so their only option is to work full time and enter the very expensive private rented market. Other people are afraid that by working full time they will lose their housing benefits and won’t be able to pay their rent, so many people prefer to start working part-time.

We explore what options their employer can offer. We also discuss their aspirations, and any additional support in or outside work they might need. For some of them I am the only person they can ask for help – they might not have a family or friends, or they might have been discharged by the referral charity. The more we work together, the more they open up and our relationship gets stronger. They share aspects of their private life, some good stories but also sadder stories, as they seek support and comfort.

It’s amazing to see how their confidence increases, how they grow, how this job opportunity changes their life. For some, their job changes the lives of the people they live with too, because they can now afford things they couldn’t have when they were unemployed. One parent told me that thanks to their new job they were finally able to spend quality time with their children, taking them to the beach and buying presents.

But there can also be challenging situations, like when the journey has to stop abruptly due to physical or mental health issues. Or occasionally, the relationship with their manager and the difficulties of the job forces me to intervene to try to find a positive solution for both.

It’s quite overwhelming when they reach the end of the programme. We’ve spent 15 months together and I have seen how much they have changed from the first time I met them to complete the initial assessment. Sometimes I feel like the proud father that sees his children graduate and move out of the house to start their new journey independently. I know that thanks to Jobs First and our relationship, they now have all the skills, abilities, resilience and confidence to walk on this path by themselves.