Homelessness

We are committed to making real changes to the lives of people who are vulnerably housed or street homeless across East Sussex.

homlessness

Homelessness

We are committed to making real changes to the lives of people who are vulnerably housed or street homeless across East Sussex.

BHT Sussex provides services to men and women who are homeless and sleeping rough to help improve their health and wellbeing and move them away from the streets onto healthy independent living.

BHT Sussex's Services

First Base Day Centre

First Base offers a range of services to support people who are sleeping rough or insecurely housed in the city, to get off the streets and start realising their aspirations.

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Phase 1

A 52 bed, high support hostel for single homeless men and women with complex needs.

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Hastings Young People's Service

The Hastings Young People’s Service is a supported housing project for homeless and vulnerable young people aged between 16 and 25 years old.

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Choir with No Name

The Choir with No Name runs choirs for homeless and marginalised people.

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Real life stories from BHT Sussex

Frankie

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.

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Michael

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.

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Neil

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

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photo of homeless man

Becs

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.

Read the full case study