Report from Fulfilling Lives - February 2018
Hope Kitchen is able to help people get into accommodation by contributing to their deposit or funding some essential items when moving into their new “home”. We support a number of agencies in this way. We recently received this from Fulfilling Lives.
Report for Hope Kitchen from Fulfilling Lives February 2018
Yesterday a man with Multiple and Complex Needs that Fulfilling Lives have supported for over 2 years moved into an Optivo (formerly Amicus Horizon 1066) Social Housing Tenancy. He has slept rough on the streets of Hastings for over 18 months in that period, and was recently housed with his Dog in Temporary Accommodation in Eastbourne. This man like all of the clients we have recently supported into accommodation and you have helped assist that transition had no funds available to move or access the most basic of needs, a bed for instance. There are funds available, some agencies will help, Probation being one and other organisations that you can apply to get funding, but none of them operate quite as swiftly as George and his team at the Hope Kitchen. So why is this important?
Imagine moving into your new home, your hopes and maybe dreams made real in Bricks and Mortar. The reality can be that at 5 o clock in the afternoon, a freezing February night is on its way, there are no carpets, no bed and possibly no power. You have no benefits until Friday, and its Monday. And you have left your belongings 15 miles away because you could only bring what you could carry. There may be nothing to sit on, nothing to cook with or nowhere to store food, or for that matter medication. The money that Hope Kitchen donates represents exactly that, Hope! The knowledge that some of this stuff will be made real today and if not today then at least tomorrow, not next week which at this point must feel interminable.
First impressions count, making those Bricks and Mortar into a Home as rapidly as possible will result in a greater chance of the tenancy being sustained; there is abundant evidence of this. Closing that new front door for the first time is a very powerful moment. One Woman we have worked with described it thus, 'I was overwhelmed, I thought I would be so happy, but I lay on the floor and cried for ages'. It’s a very complex transition, but it’s one that gets that little bit easier with your help.
Clients helped so far 6, currently all still maintaining their tenancies