Paul is a 49 year-old man who was street homeless in Brighton for four years, suffering from heroin, crack cocaine and alcohol addiction.

He also has multiple physical health difficulties. For a long period of his life, Paul’s closest companion was his dog Lil. As Paul explains in this account below, he was someone who other support services found difficult to reach, but he eventually managed to turn his life around with the support of BHT’s Addiction Services.

Neil started sleeping rough around two years ago. He was suffering from physical and mental health problems that had been exacerbated by life on the streets.

When he first started coming to First Base, Neil was sleeping under Brighton’s Palace Pier. After sleeping out all night, he looked forward to the chance to get warm and have a shower, put on clean clothes, and have a hot meal. More importantly, he was able to get support and advice to help him find a way out of rough sleeping.

First Base supported Neil to access temporary accommodation but after a serious deterioration in his mental health he was admitted to hospital. While he was in hospital Neil lost his accommodation and, on discharge, he returned to rough sleeping

Shore House provides accommodation and support for people with multiple and complex needs. That means they will have a combination of alcohol and drug addictions, mental health problems, and other chaotic or destructive behaviours. Often they will have experienced repeated trauma throughout their lives.

Mo moved to Shore House after being discharged from Mill View Hospital. Before her hospital admission she had been evicted from three services for violence, aggression, and causing extensive damage to her room.

She had a history of being street homeless and she displayed various anti-social behaviours including urinating and defecating in gardens, damaging cars, shouting verbal abuse, and making allegations of assault and rape when attempts were made to remove her from private property.

Last year our advice services in Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings prevented 817 households from becoming homeless. The impact of this is huge: fewer people on the streets, less demands on local council homelessness services, or moving children away from the schools and their friends. Some people become homeless, not through any fault of their own.

Mike moved into a Housing Association flat in 1980. A few months later he was offered a job as a caretaker at a nearby social club – a job he did for 36 years until he was made redundant. In 1996 he had moved to another flat owned by the housing association, but unbeknown to him, his employers had taken a sub-lease on the flat. In law, his employer had become his landlord. The social club went into liquidation.

Not only did he lose his job, but he wasn’t given any redundancy pay and he was told to leave his home of 20 years.

Simon moved into the Archway Project in June 2018, following a 10 year stay at another registered care home.

Before Simon moved to Archway he had lived in a registered care home for 10 years and his referral paperwork suggested someone who had become institutionalised; he did not socialise with other residents, had minimal interaction with staff, ate all of his dinners in his room, and relied on staff to cook for him and do his laundry.

Since moving to Archway Simon has shown a marked change. He is now sitting down to dinner with other residents, joining in with walks, games of croquet, trips to cafés and craft activities.

Around half those sleeping rough in Brighton and Hove have a local connection. Others come to Brighton for many reasons: the image of the city that has attracted many of us, perhaps a happy childhood memory of visiting the seaside, or because of its reputation for tolerance and acceptance (for example drugs and the acceptance of LGBT people).

Very, very rarely does someone say that they came to Brighton because of the services for homeless people. Unfortunately, when people arrive in the city without a plan, without social networks, or without considerable financial resources, they can find themselves on the streets.

Michael is a 63 year old man who came to First Base in November 2017. He was new to Brighton and had become homeless after the break-up of his marriage and losing his job. He had moved to Brighton as he thought it would be a more tolerant place.

The Hastings Young People’s Service does what the name suggests, providing accommodation and support for homeless young people in Hastings and St. Leonards. Frankie came to the service in October 2016. She had held a tenancy elsewhere but due to relationship breakdown, found it difficult to cope and was ultimately evicted. This left her homeless and socially isolated.

Frankie responded positively to having stability and a constant source of support from the staff team. She engaged well with her key worker using a PIE (Psychologically Informed Environment) approach and she was able to explore reasons for her isolation, history of self-harming, depression, aspirations and visualising what her future would look like. This helped Frankie understand her needs and make a plan to move on.

Increasingly we are working with people who are in work or who become homeless having lost their job. Our Accommodation for Work Project was set up to help people like Enes. He worked as a chef and lived in shared accommodation in Brighton. When the job came to an end, he struggled to find another job. His landlord would not accept housing benefit and he quickly became homeless.

He slept rough in doorways, struggling to find work and accommodation. He made a homeless application with the council and was referred to our Accommodation for Work Project. This was the first time in his life that Enes had been homeless. When he came for his interview, it was clear that he was in a state of shock. Mindful that he was rough sleeping, project staff made it possible for him to view a room the same day. Fortunately for Enes, a room had become vacant just the day before.

Helping someone off the streets is not as simple as just providing a roof over their head. Becs was referred to our 52 bed hostel, Phase One, in April 2013 having lost her accommodation. She had previously had her own independent tenancies but these had broken down due to rent arrears which had led to her entering a negative cycle and her engagement with support services had decreased.

Her physical health was poor due to her long-term alcohol and drug addiction which had also impacted her psychological well-being as she had been struggling with establishing positive sleep patterns causing her to feel depressed.

When she came to Phase One she wanted to work towards again getting her own independent accommodation and to re-establish contact with her son.

The Whitehawk Inn provides services beyond being a local community support service and adult education centre.

Helen was referred to us by the Discretionary Payment team at Brighton and Hove City Council. She wanted advice on how to reduce her deficit monthly budget. A significant rent increase had caused a monthly deficit.

In Helen’s support session, we completed a monthly budget planner. We then discussed options available to her to reduce the deficit, including income maximisation (for example, renting out her second bedroom, working part time, and downsizing) and reducing outgoings such as cheaper utility bills, water etc., and grants which she may be eligible for through the Council, Turn2Us and utility trust funds.

We completed a benefit check which showed she was not eligible for any further benefits.

Not all BHT’s mental health services are residential. The Threshold Women’s Counselling Service provides a lifeline to many women. This is the account of one of them.

“I found out about the service through Survivors’ Network. I was in a distressed state due to recent abuse and decided to go to Threshold because I wanted some more help and support. When I initially came to the Drop In I was very distressed. Staff were concerned about me because of the state that I was in, but I felt very comfortable talking to the Drop In workers.

“Before going to the service I was scared to go out, so the first few times I came I had to have someone to support me to get there. I then started using the bus to get there by myself and it was Threshold who gave me the confidence to go outside. I started looking forward to the days that the Drop In ran.

Over the last couple of years, BHT’s Addiction Services have noticed an increase in the number of ‘second generation’ addicts. They were children who grew up with one, or both, parents with a severe alcohol and/or drug problem. They often suffered extreme neglect and, in most cases, severe trauma.

The nature of the work that we do at both the Detox Support Project and at the Recovery Project is to help clients to address safely the legacy of their core needs being unmet as children. By doing so, we reduce the chances of those issues becoming triggers for relapse, and they are able to rebuild their lives with the skills and self-belief they were not given as children.

Brendon is a 31-year old alcohol and cocaine addict who recently completed treatment within our Addiction Services.