canterbury community shelter report 2019/20 · sleeper initiative team, fiona thompson –...

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CANTERBURY COMMUNITY

SHELTER REPORT 2019/20

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INTRODUCTION

The Canterbury Community Shelter ran for 113 nights between 1st December 2019 and 23rd March

2020. As with previous winter season’s, we operated a ‘rolling shelter’ using seven church venues,

one for each night of the week, that provided overnight accommodation for up to 20 guests per

night. The service delivery consisted of paid resources of 1 evening project worker and 2 overnight

project workers. This was supported by our dedicated winter shelter volunteer team who supported

the service with the preparation of evening meals, transportation of bedding to and from the venues,

and engaging with guests at the centre and at the church venues.

The shelter was again coordinated from Canterbury Open Centre on Station Road East, the location at

which potential guests needed to come to in order to be registered for and request a space in the

shelter daily if they were in need of one. Guests could make full use of the services at the day centre,

ranging from hot meals, internet use, phone use, personal storage, showers, laundry services, and

use of the centre as a ‘care of’ address, for example to register with GP surgeries and D.W.P. for any

benefit enquiries.

As always, places were allocated to those who were most in need, and also to those who had a good

level of engagement with our services in order to find suitable accommodation to move into (taking

into consideration what steps could reasonably be expected of them to be making in terms of their

personal situation). Such engagement included maintaining regular contact with our Mental Health

and Project Worker teams in order to complete referrals to supported housing projects, look for

private rented accommodation, register with GPs, complete CVs, job searches and also engagement

with local drug, alcohol and mental health services where needed.

As with last year we also had scheduled drop in’s weekly from Canterbury City Council’s Rough

Sleeper Initiative Team, Fiona Thompson – Porchlight, Lorraine Swan – Porchlight, Will Myers –

Canterbury City Council, Jamie Reeve – The Forward Trust.

As always we were well supported by volunteers from our local community which contributed hugely

to the smooth running of the shelter, with minimal time being spent finding people to cover shifts,

and therefore much more time spent focusing on the guests staying in the shelter. Thank you to all

who have been involved in the running of this year’s shelter, including all staff and volunteers at

Catching Lives and our seven church venues, and all those who have donated items or raised money

in order for us to provide this potentially lifesaving service to so many people.

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Catching Lives staff-

Terry Gore - General Manager

Ali Donnelly - CCS Coordinator

Graeme Solly - Project Leader

Emma McCrudden - Outreach Worker

Dorota Witczak - Project Worker

Paul Todd - Project Worker/ CCS on call

Alanna Gallacher - CCS Project Worker

Richard Hopker - CCS Project Worker

Iwona Waligora - CCS Project Worker

Pete West - CCS Project Worker

Derek Speed - Locum Project Worker

Paul Tweedie - Locum Project Worker

Stephanie Hagen- Mentoring Coordinator

Penny Wilson- Project Workers

Miriam Ellis - Arts Coordinator

Karen Baxter - Mental Health Outreach

Denis Tweedie - Mental Health Outreach

Luana Ali - Client Data Coordinator

Simon Rice- Volunteer Coordinator

Paul Willoughby - Administrator

Michael James- Fundraiser

Ruth Gore- Client Data Assistant

Jason Hanford - Chairman of Board of Trustees

CCS venue coordinators-

Jill Atkinson/Catherine Colley - St Mary Bredin Church

Jackie Curd - St Paul's Parish Centre

Richard Cockrell - St Peter's Methodist Church

Martin Usher - Canterbury Baptist Church

Linda Scott - St Thomas' Catholic Church

Rev. Phil Grieg - All Saint's Church

Peter Brown - St. Stephen's Church

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Mondays - St. Mary Bredin Church Tuesdays - St Pauls Parish Centre

Wednesdays - St. Peters Methodist Church Thursdays - Canterbury Baptist Church

Fridays - St Thomas’ Catholic Church Saturdays - All Saints Church

Sundays - St Stephen's Parish Church Canterbury Open Centre

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SHELTER OCCUPANCY

86 People were referred to the shelter

71 People stayed in the shelter

2260 Bed spaces were available

1298 Bed spaces were taken 57% Occupancy rate

11 Spaces per night on average were taken

Comparisons to previous years-

2015/16-




2017/18-




2018/19-




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DETAILS OF THOSE WHO WERE REFERRED

Ethnicity:

American 1

British 66

Bulgarian 2

Greek 1

Latvian 1

Lithuanian 1

Namibian 1

Nepalese 1

Polish 5

Romanian 2

Slovakian 1

Spanish 1

Bulgarian 2

Sudanese 1

Gender:

Male 73

Female 13

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ACCOMMODATION OUTCOMES

14 moved into private rented accommodation.

5 moved into supported accommodation.

3 placed in long term interim accommodation

provided by Canterbury City Council whilst

awaiting settled accommodation.

2 were reconnected with family/ an area of

origin.

1 was provided with student accommodation to

and support to access University of Kent.

1 moved back in with family.

26 people who stayed in the shelter had a

positive housing outcome during the

period of operation.

This equates to 37% of our guests.

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ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

We have once again experienced a busy winter at the daycentre, with a high number of guests, both

referred to and staying in the shelter. This came as no surprise to us due to the high numbers we had

been seeing at the daycentre in the months leading up to opening the shelter. Over the 113 nights

that the shelter ran for, we had 3180 visits to the day centre (an average of 42 people a day).

As with previous years, the majority of those who accessed the shelter were already visiting the

daycentre (some regularly and some on and off). We had referrals from the usual sources such as

local authorities, probation services, prisons and directly from hospital. We continue to monitor and

work with Campaign Kent to highlight the continuing issue of clients being discharged to the street

from hospital.

Of those who stayed in the night shelter we had 26 positive housing outcomes. This means that 37%

of those who stayed were found accommodation. 5 of these guests were placed into supported

accommodation where they can remain, usually for up to 2 years, to work with support workers in

order to move towards fully independent living. 2 of the guests moved into Sanctuary Housing youth

supported accommodation, which has dedicated key workers on site. We continue to work with

Sanctuary, supporting 1 client in order to prevent him becoming homeless again. We also had 14

clients find private rented accommodation, most of which are outside the Canterbury area. One

client was able to apply for University, with the direct support of our Arts Coordinator and source

student accommodation.

Canterbury City Council also held regular ‘drop-in sessions’ at the centre, during which clients were

able to meet a housing officer and discuss their situation, make homelessness applications or simply

find out what help was available to them. This was a valuable service to our shelter guests and also

to staff as it allowed us to discuss client’s situations face to face and speed up the process of

matching their needs and what help was available. We are also pleased to be able to continue to

open our day centre 7 days a week as this has given all guests staying in the shelter even more time

to engage with services. Guests have been able to have meals and shower daily, check emails

regularly and keep staff up to date with their current situation. This is also gives guests a routine

and offer the opportunity to utilise all the support offered in our dedicated Medical Room, seeking

advice from our volunteer nurses/podiatrist who hold drop-ins at the centre.

We had 3 periods in which Canterbury City Council brought in their ‘severe weather emergency

protocol (SWEP)’ which occurs when the temperature is forecast to drop to zero degrees Celsius or

below for three consecutive nights (although it could also potentially be brought in based on a

‘common sense view’ such as excessive wind or rain). The first period, in early December, lasted for

5 nights, the second at the beginning of February for 4 nights and the final period of 8 nights at the

end of February and lasted for 3 nights. During these periods, anyone who had no alternative

options that night but to sleep rough (after the 20 bed spaces in the night shelter had been

confirmed) were offered a B&B, booked and paid for by the Council. People were referred to

Canterbury Council to access SWEP. As Homeless Link’s SWEP guidance states, “SWEP often provides

an opportunity to engage individuals who have been reluctant to accept support in the past. As well

as saving lives, one of the key aims of offering shelter is to support people in making a transition

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from the streets. It is important that barriers to move on are identified early on, and that

authorities/agencies work with providers to remove these barriers.”

This winter was relatively milder than in previous years. This is largely the reason that the shelter

occupancy rate was lower than it has been in the past. The increased work that Catching Lives, and

the Rough Sleeper Initiative, has undertaken over the winter also meant clients were able to move

on from the shelter quicker than in previous years, which kept numbers needing the shelter each

night lower and also lead to a higher percentage of positive outcomes in than previous years.

As always, many of our clients are not deemed as a priority to be housed by local authorities, and

the majority of these people have struggled to find affordable private rented accommodation in this

area, even when working full time. Furthermore, whilst the council have offered many people the

chance to apply for support under their rent deposit scheme or for discretionary housing payments,

many landlords are also reluctant to accept those who are claiming housing benefit.

A milder winter season let to SWEP being activated for only 17 nights, across only 3 periods. This had

minimal impact on the night shelter take up during this time.

Due to Covid 19 restrictions being brought in March, we adjusted our night shelter provision and

brought it in house at the Day Centre on Monday 16th March and subsequently had to close on

Monday 23rd March when lockdown was announced. This crisis brought many challenges to all our

guests and day centre clients.

VOLUNTEERING

Thanks as always to all those who have supported us with this year’s shelter, from the seven

churches who provided a safe space for guests to sleep and a warm welcome for 113 nights,

to all who volunteered, both at the day centre and all the overnight venues, and also those

who helped deliver our vast amount of bedding in mornings and evenings. Also a big thank

you to those volunteers that stepped in a short notice to cover sickness.

We hope to see many of you back again next year.

Volunteers are at the heart of Catching Lives and I am pleased that the number of people

joining us increases all the times. This gives us a further opportunity to extend and improve

the services and activities on offer at the open centre.

During this year’s shelter:

Over 80 different volunteers completed a combined

total of over 904 shifts, totalling over 1910 combined

hours of volunteering!

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This included more than:

-350 hours spent transporting bedding bags

-690 hours spent preparing evening meals for guests at the day centre

-225 hours welcoming guests into the day centre and evening venues

-105 hours of overnight shifts at the church halls

- 393 hours setting up church venues

- 147 hours project work

The sign up system was very effective at monitoring gaps in resourcing and a big thank you

to all our volunteers that doubled up on duties to ensure that we were still able to offer a

full service to our guests.

THANK YOU

Thank you to all our volunteers and members of the community who have supported us

over the 4 months with donations and fundraising. Thanks of course to all our local schools,

universities and churches that have supported us.

There are simply too many people and places to thank in this report and we thank each and

every one of you for your contributions towards the ability for us to run our shelter each

year.

In addition to this, we could not provide this project without all the

generous donations we receive. Thank you to all, including:

The John Swire 1989 Charitable Trust Canterbury City Council (Community Services and Safer Neighbourhood contributions)

John and Marina Gardner

The Atherton Grassroots Fund

Canterbury Christian Council Ltd

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FINANCIAL STATEMENT

Thank you to all the local services that played a key role in supporting us during the operation

of the shelter including, but not limited to:

-Canterbury City Council- (Will Myers) For holding ‘drop-ins’ at the centre whereby guests could

meet a member of ‘housing options’ for advice, signposting, and details on what help could be

provided to them in terms of accommodation, and much more.

-Porchlight staff (Fiona Thompson & Lorraine Swan)- For meeting with shelter guests at the day

centre every week.

-Department of Work & Pensions – (Denise) For holding a fortnightly ‘drop-ins’ at the centre

which has been invaluable to assist with benefit applications.

-The Forward Trust- For supporting many of our guests to tackle their substance use, which

played a huge part in some of our guests finding supported accommodation to move into at the

end of the shelter.

-The Salvation Army Canterbury- Provides a drop-in for people, sleeping bags, general support,

travel funding and much more.

-Other Winter Shelters- For information and support when needed, including Folkestone

Churches Winter Shelter and Ashford Winter Night Shelter.

-The Canterbury and Herne Bay Volunteer Centre, Red Zebra Community Solutions,

Canterbury Christchurch University and University of Kent - Thanks to all staff for promoting

our volunteering opportunities to so many people.

INCOME EXPENDITURE

DONATIONS £54,880.00 SALARIES £44,857.98

CHARITABLE DISCOUNTS £79.00 PURCHASES £797.59

STAFF EXPENSES £786.00

CLIENT EXPENSES £249.49

INCOME TOTAL- £54,959.00 EXPENDITURE TOTAL- £46,691.06

canterbury community shelter report 2019/20 · sleeper initiative team, fiona thompson –...

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