Deptford Reach re-opens with new schedule and services

Deptford Reach re-opens this week with an adapted schedule, with activities and takeaway food once again available to those experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Deptford Reach re-opens with new schedule and services

Since the beginning of the pandemic, many of Thames Reach’s services have had to change the way they work to ensure the safety of communities, the people we work with and staff alike. For Deptford Reach, based in the heart of the community in south London, this meant a reduced face-to-face services while ensuring no one was left behind in these difficult times. Its day centre functionality was postponed, as the conventional use of the space with many people sharing a confined space was not suitable in pandemic times. Staff worked with those most at need, but as of this week (W/C Monday 12 April) the building is opening up again, with selected services running, including:

A rough sleeping support hub, which will take place in the mornings, providing advice, breakfast, showers, clothing and laundry facilities to anyone experiencing street homelessness. This will run Monday to Friday.

Prevention and sustainment service will run alongside this, on an appointment basis.  This will provide support to anyone at risk of homelessness, and people needing support sustaining their accommodation.

From 17th May onwards, activities will take place on site in two-hour slots during the day. These will take the same format as the day centre as it existed prior to lockdown, with sessions including digital skills, women’s services and art.

Alongside this our kitchen will open again with takeaway food available in line with government guidelines, meaning that food will have to be taken outside of the building, at least for the time being.

A dentist, GP and nurse will be on site on set days of the week. At Thames Reach our aim is to ensure that everyone we work with is registered with their own GP, and can access the health services they need.  However these services are not always as accessible as they should be to people who are homeless and in housing need, and by using Deptford Reach as a point of access, this can make a real difference for some of the people who use our service.

Another new element of the Deptford Reach team’s work will be “outreach” sessions. This differs from the ‘traditional’ street outreach work with people sleeping rough, but allows the team to seek out people in housing need and intervene to prevent homelessness.  It will involve support workers being present at food banks across the borough of Lewisham to provide the same prevention and sustainment service outlined above.

Deptford Reach are looking for volunteers to help deliver their new services, particularly support for the rough sleeping hub and volunteers with specialised skills, to run activities for the Deptford Reach community, such as art, meditation, yoga. To discuss this further, email volunteers@thamesreach.org.uk or visit our Volunteer page to apply. 

 

 

Just Eat campaign feeds almost 2,000 people experiencing isolation and poor health

The campaign run by Just Eat which launched in December 2020 has helped Thames Reach provide tasty and nutritious meals to almost 2,000 people experiencing social isolation and poor health

Just Eat campaign feeds almost 2,000 people experiencing isolation and poor health

Prior to Christmas 2020. Just Eat, the well-known food outlet, in association with Social Bite, the organisation behind the Worlds Big Sleep Out in 2019, ran a fundraising campaign raising money to alleviate the growing problem of food poverty.

When ordering their takeaway, Just Eat customers were invited to donate a small sum on top of their order total to raise money to buy 200,000 Christmas meals for people in need across the UK. Thames Reach was one of fifteen charities selected to distribute the funds raised.

The campaign and the money raised exceeded expectations, and the charities quickly hit their target for the number of meals provided. With the help of some fantastic volunteers, Thames Reach staff across the organisation distributed 500 meals to people living alone and in food poverty over the Christmas period. This was particularly important this year, with the cancellation of  festive meals and services, which are so important for people who live alone and in poverty.

But this is not the end of the story. Because the fundraising campaign was so successful, we have continued to provide meals and groceries to vulnerable and isolated people through January, February and March. In fact, we have distributed an additional 1300 meals to people in need. This couldn’t have been more timely, with the pandemic seriously affecting those who needed to self-isolate, but who didn’t have the kind of family support so many of us can rely on.

We want to say a big thank you to Just Eat and its customers, Social Bite and our partners, particularly The Good Eating Company, which provided really high-quality ready meals, and a huge thank you to our fantastic volunteers. They distributed the meals and offered a little Christmas cheer and a warm smile to everyone they met.

Thames Reach’s response to latest rough sleeping count

Bill Tidnam, Thames Reach chief executive, responds to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Governments (MHCLG) street count figures, stating that while the decrease in numbers of people rough sleeping is hopeful, we must not lose sight of the importance of prevention services

Thames Reach’s response to latest rough sleeping count

“The national snapshot rough sleeping street count figures collected by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) at the end of November 2020 show a significant reduction in rough sleeping compared to the same period in 2019.  These figures need to be treated with some caution: they are a snapshot of one night, and some areas undertake an estimate rather than counting.  That being said, the more accurate CHAIN database from the Greater London Authority (GLA) records people seen sleeping rough by outreach workers in London, also shows a reduction in Quarter 3 (October to December) against the same period in 2019.

“This follows an large increase in rough sleeping in April and May during the first lockdown, when many people who were precariously housed lost accommodation and came onto the streets for the first time.  Many of these people were helped by the ‘Everyone In’ response, which provided temporary accommodation, with many of these people now moved into long-term housing.

“People sleeping rough are not a static population.  Of the 3307 people seen sleeping rough in London between October and December 2020, 1582 were new to the street, and 1166 spent only one night on the street.  Rough sleeping is damaging and dangerous.  Investment by government in services to help people who are on the streets is welcome and is having an impact.  However if we are really serious about tackling rough sleeping we need to get to people before they end up on the streets, and prevent this happening.  The majority of people sleeping rough have significant support needs around their mental health or substance misuse (or a combination of these), and their homelessness represents a breakdown of the networks that should provide support, rather than a ‘simple’ housing crisis.   Work to build and reinforce these networks before people ended up on the streets was a major, albeit unsung, part of the effective response to rough sleeping in the early part of this century, but in the last ten years, local government funding cuts have meant that much of this work no longer happens.

“Around 50% of people sleeping rough on London’s streets are non-UK nationals, and the often punitive legal response to this group, means that it is often difficult for charities like Thames Reach to give them the help they need to get and stay off the streets.  There has been progress in this area with a greater flexibility around exclusion and help to find work, but the figures remain consistently high.  Putting needs rather than nationality first is crucial if we are to begin to make a difference for all people experiencing street homelessness.”

Vaccination priority list to cater to “mitigating health inequalities”

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunology (JCVI) has recommended flexibility with the priority list for the COVID vaccine, stating that people experiencing health inequalities should be prioritised.

Vaccination priority list to cater to “mitigating health inequalities”

Following the amendment of guidance that ensured staff working with homeless people were treated as “frontline health and social care” staff, the public health body deciding on vaccination priorities, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunology (JCVI), has recommended flexibility from authorities, meaning that the vaccine allocation should give attention to mitigating health inequalities.  The committee has identified people who are experiencing homelessness as a group who are affected by these inequalities, something that has been a priority message for Thames Reach for some time. This has already meant that some hostel residents have been offered vaccination.

Thames Reach welcome  JCVI’s recognition that the people who use our services can be particularly vulnerable, as this opens the route to earlier vaccination for people who are particularly at risk because they live in hostels or other shared accommodation, as well as those who already meet the criteria due to their age or clinical vulnerability. In the meantime Thames Reach are maintaining the protocol of ensuring that as many people as possible are registered with their GP, in order to make sure they are offered the vaccine at the appropriate time for optimum safety for all.

Thames Reach’s focus for 2019

As this year comes to an end, Thames Reach’s Chief Executive, Bill Tidnam, talks about the charity’s focus for the year ahead.

Thames Reach’s focus for 2019

Thames Reach Chief Executive, Bill Tidnam, talks about the charity’s focus for 2019.

“I’m proud of the work we do to prevent and reduce rough sleeping in London. Not just getting people off the streets, but helping people rebuild their lives after, as well as intervening to prevent them from becoming homeless in the first place.

“For us, as a homelessness charity, it’s important to tell it as it is – to make use of our experience, and the experience of the people we work with, to explain what we do to end rough sleeping and why we do it.

“The number of people sleeping rough has increased in recent years, and we’re now seeing a co-ordinated response from central government which is focused on reducing and eventually ending rough sleeping. While we may quibble over the levels of investment, and the previous reductions in funding for local authorities, we welcome this change, and think it has the potential to make a real difference.

“Homelessness is a complex problem which affects thousands of people, and it’s important to recognise that the solutions aren’t simple.

“Over the next year we’re keen to focus on three issues we know have a particular impact on rough sleepers and rough sleeping in London.

“1. Poor health can be a cause and a result of street homelessness, and we know that people who are homeless don’t always get the help they need from the NHS. Therefore we’re keen to build on the excellent work that we already do with the NHS to make sure that homeless people can access and get the support they need to improve their health.

“2. We also want to talk about the benefits system, and about the consequences of changes to the system and the way in it is administered, which can mean that people can become homeless and then stay homeless for longer.

“We’d like to work with the Department for Work and Pension to find solutions for the people we are supporting, using our experience and knowledge on the ground.

“3. Finally, we want to think about what we can do to help rough sleepers from the European Union to get off the streets. Around 28% of people rough sleeping in London are from other countries in the EU and don’t have any entitlement to government help. We have become increasingly concerned about some people in this group and their wellbeing, and feel we need more discussions about how best to respond to this issue.

“Over the coming year, we will be sharing stories and experiences regarding these issues to inspire more people to support and understand the work we do, and to assist in our vision of ending street homelessness, helping people to find decent homes, build supportive relationships and lead fulfilling lives.”

Homelessness and housing organisations respond to Government Rough Sleeping Strategy

Thames Reach welcomes the Government’s new rough sleeping strategy

Homelessness and housing organisations respond to Government Rough Sleeping Strategy

The Government today releases its rough sleeping strategy, the first since announcing its commitment to halve the number of people sleeping on the streets by 2022 and to end the problem by 2027.

Responding, housing and homelessness organisations who were part of the strategy’s Rough Sleeping Advisory Group issued a joint statement saying:

“This strategy is a significant step towards the government’s goal of ending rough sleeping by 2027, which will make a real difference to people’s lives. As members of the advisory panel, we welcome the new funding commitment for dedicated outreach teams and for emergency bed spaces, while the announcement of nationwide trials of a ‘somewhere safe to stay’ duty and the review of the vagrancy act have the potential to pave the way for desperately needed reforms, preventing people sleeping rough.

“However, for the strategy to work, the government must also set out bold, cross-departmental plans to tackle the root causes of all forms of homelessness, and prevent it from happening in the first place. This must include plans to build significantly more social housing, to foster greater security for renters, to ensure people have access to benefits and other support they need to help them keep their homes. We also need to see a reversal of policies that leave migrants homeless and destitute, and healthcare, mental health and substance misuse services that are available and truly accessible to those who need it.

“To end rough sleeping by 2027, the government must build on today’s welcome announcement and set out plans to prevent homelessness from occurring in the first place. The ambitious target that the government has set itself will only be achieved if it is equally bold on addressing the polices that cause rough sleeping.”

Responding further, Bill Tidnam, Chief Executive at Thames Reach said:

“Rough sleeping is both dangerous and distressing and nobody should have to sleep rough on the streets.

“We’re pleased new measures are being taken to ensure people receive the right support to move away from homelessness.

“We welcome this strategy and its investment, and believe it’s an encouraging start in ending rough sleeping.

“We particularly welcome funding from the Department of Health, and the commitment this provides in ensuring that homeless people have access to the health services they need; as well as the recognition of the specific needs of migrant rough sleepers, who currently have few realistic options available to them. There needs to be an ongoing discussion around how this funding will be spent to effectively support this group to move into affordable accommodation and work.

“The real work now begins on implementing this strategy, ensuring a level of agreement and understanding so work can get underway, and making sure we all listen and learn from all lessons along the way”.