The report mentions substance misuse

I was a regular visitor to A&E, GPs and dentists. I was a real burden on an already struggling NHS, but in my defence, I was in the grips of addiction, I was a lost soul, frightened and mentally unwell.

I have fallen down the stairs knocking myself unconscious, I’ve split the back of my head open, had 28 stitches just above my eye, I have broken or knocked out nearly every tooth in my upper jaw repeatedly, broke numerous ribs, bruised the entire left side of my face falling out of a moving car, the list is endless.

Looking back at the way I was treated, I didn’t have any concerns regarding the medical procedures I received, but the way I was treated as a person was demoralising at times. At a time when I was scared and felt low and all I needed was kindness, I found some staff were judgemental. I’d get looks of disgust and disapproval and some people completely ignored the fact that I existed, and some made me feel that I was in the way.

Nobody seemed to have any knowledge or interest on how to treat alcoholics and I ended up as a revolving door patient for many years. Addiction tricks you into believing it’s not as bad as you think, that you’re in control. It convinces you that it won’t get out of hand next time, it also tricks you that you’ll be able to quit whenever you want.

Addiction is a liar but you only know this when you’re in recovery and even then it’s tapping you on your shoulder. I was never offered any help or advice when I sat in hospitals stinking of booze, blood-stained clothes, I was just stitched up, x-rayed, brain scanned or bandaged then on sent on my way. Some may think this was all self-inflicted and I deserved it but I was clearly insane to keep going back for more.

Nobody asked if I was going home to a safe environment or indeed, how I would get home. Nor did anyone ever ask about my mental health. I’m aware that NHS resources are stretched to the limit but if someone had spoken to me about alcohol abuse, asked if I needed any help or would I like to be signposted somewhere for help, maybe I would have listened and by doing so reduced my accidents and visits to the hospitals.

After all,  the Alcohol/ Drugs are just the symptom. The real problem lies with the individual. It is a mental health issue. Addicts have difficulty living life on life’s terms. We drink or use to cope or block things out.

I wish that all NHS staff were educated about addiction and get rid of that stigma that hangs over it. I hope for the day that staff see the person not the addict, after all we aren’t bad people trying to get good, we are poorly people trying to get better. My aim in reporting is to change people’s perspective of homelessness and addiction which very often go hand in hand and shine a light on the health Inequalities we face due to lack of education and understanding of NHS staff. 

They say that one person can make the difference. That’s true, but I’ve generally found one voice in a deafening crowd gets lost within the maelstrom of noise but add our voices together, then just maybe, just maybe, we can be heard and have influence for the good. They say that one person can make the difference.

—

Join us: We see the the hub as the start of a movement of people, all united in the belief that elevating our voices will challenge stereotypes and help decision makers end homeless health inequalities. Join us by signing up to our mailing list – the Listen Up! mail out.

Hello everyone, it’s John Chiko. So today I will be starting a series called Emotions For Our Future, which will be focused on the emotions I believe will help humanity solve its many problems and build a better future for us all. The first emotion I want to talk about is empathy, which I believe is the catalyst to showing care to those who are in pain and discomfort. Empathy is the ability to understand and share someone else’s feelings and experiences. This, to be more specific, empathy  is achieved by imagining what that person is going through and putting yourself in their shoes, or rather understanding  their emotions and experiences from their perspective.

I believe that this ability is essential to communicate effectively with everyone that we interact with in our lives. It is essential to communicate with anyone that is not us, anyone that is not living the same life as we are, someone on a different path for one reason or another. It is usually those that have felt pain that are most open to helping those that are feeling it, because they understand. People are less likely to act or acknowledge anything that they are dissociated from. It’s most likely someone that has experienced homelessness that will take action to help and prevent homelessness for those that are experiencing it, because they understand the loneliness, the isolation and the darkness that can swallow you at your most vulnerable time.

If more people were empathetic, then they would most likely act against most of the injustices that they see take place in front of their eyes, in their own communities. People are not in bad places because they are bad people, no. It’s because people are in pain. Understanding this collectively, would allow us to find the root causes of the problems we are facing and treating them, with the aid of people who truly want to fix these problems. If empathy itself could speak, then it would have two phrases, “I understand” and “I will help”. But what I do understand is that empathy is a very powerful draining emotion, it is not for the faint-hearted.

I believe that to tackle homelessness across the UK, we must find skilled people that have empathy based on their work and personal experience. Doing so would allow us to create collectives and networks that will allow us to find solutions to homelessness by putting our knowledge, experience, and resources together to create practical solution to homelessness with the areas that we live and operate in. It is a tall order, but in all honesty, it is the most practical solutions, because really and truly these are our problems at the end of the day. Most organisations are solely focused on profit without any of the corporate social responsibility.

But that is my first of emotion for our future, Empathy. I understand, I will help.

One night between lockdowns, after a rare excursion out of the borough, I return to Brixton by tube. It’s nearly midnight. A ghost town. Don’t think I’ve ever seen the high street so empty except, perhaps, at four in the morning. There’s a chill in the air, after all it’s October. A fine drizzle clings to my clothes, the pavements gleam. A few people scurry past heads down. Buses pull in, pull away, hardly anyone gets on and off.

Outside Iceland a frail looking woman, maybe in her 50’s, stands still like a statue; a hat at her feet, shoulders hunched, head slightly tilted, eyes closed, hands in the prayer position. Near Boots a young woman, buzzes past in a hoody; pale, drawn, unkempt. I’d met her 18 months before when she told me she was out on a pass from the Maudsley mental health hospital. She doesn’t notice me, seems as wired as she was then. Outside H&M there’s a guy with one leg in a wheelchair; hood up, head nodding forward, hands in his lap, sleeping. Here in the rain.

What, I wonder, happened to Everyone In?  It’s reported it was quietly wound up in May, indignantly disputed by the government. Yet since November charities have been calling for its reinstatement. For vulnerable people like these with complex needs, accommodation is only the beginning of their healing.

Just how successful was Everyone In?  Those who benefited speak highly of it, for some it was life changing. An undated report from the London Assembly entitled, COVID-19 response for people sleeping rough: What has the Mayor done so far?  states, “Almost 1,700 rough sleepers have been accommodated in hotels arranged by the GLA and supported by rough sleeping charities since March… So far, over 600 people have positively moved on from the hotels with the help of charity workers.”

After witnessing this scene I couldn’t help wonder how many fell through the cracks? Hard to tell. It’s notoriously difficult to know the exact numbers of rough sleepers. It’s a shifting picture with reporting subject to delays as often the data is complex and detailed. I don’t want to reduce this to numbers as every one of these people is someone, perhaps with complex needs, also with desires, dreams and potential, though it helps to have some idea of a baseline.

On 27^th February 2020, a month prior to the first lockdown, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government released figures for rough sleeping across England in 2019. These figures aim to provide a ‘snapshot’ of the number of people who sleep rough via a count on a single ‘typical’ night between 1^st October and 30^th November each year. The figures suggested 4266 people in England were experiencing homeless, 1136 of them in London, indicating a 9% drop in rough sleeping from 2019.

Accordingly to the multi-agency database funded by City Hall, the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN), which is generally considered a more reliable source, 10 726 people were seen rough sleeping by outreach workers throughout the year in London between April 2019 and March 2020, representing a record high and a 21% annual increase.

Confused? So was I. There appears to be an enormous disconnect between the figures the government is working with and those gathered by outreach workers, homeless charities and City Hall. The government figures drew controversy and they were forced to respond. I decided to take a deep dive into the quarterly CHAIN reports.

In the quarter April to June 2020 CHAIN reported a 33% decrease in the numbers of rough sleepers compared with the same quarter in 2019 and a 30% drop compared to the preceding quarter, January to March 2020. In the next two quarters the figures began to rise again but still remained below the corresponding quarters, pre-pandemic last year. Suggests to me, whatever the baseline, Everyone In was working, to some extent.

Those I witnessed that night in October may not have been rough sleeping but likely to be homeless, while 431 people were found to be sleeping rough on the streets of Lambeth by CHAIN in 2018/2020.

The launch of Everyone In was ambitious and compassionate. The old saying goes, “If it’s working don’t fix it.” I say, if it’s working don’t scrap it and why at this time when COVID-19 cases and deaths far exceed those at the peek of the March to May 2020 lockdown has it not been reinstated? I’d say, bring it back better.

You can find more of Anne’s fantastic reporting on her blog ‘Seed and Fuses’ https://seedandfuses.wordpress.com/blog/

A woman I met at a chatty ‘get together’  asked me what I did. I hate the question, not because I’m ashamed of what I do but I think people are too quick to define each other by the work they do and the status that gives you. When the work I did wasn’t strictly above board I couldn’t answer it honestly but more recently I’m getting people saying stuff like ‘uww, you’re a saint..’

I’m no more a saint than when I used to do the stuff I used to do, but that’s a rant for another piece. In this case I answered the question honestly ‘I work for a ‘homeless charity’ and I told her about this project, ‘Listen Up!’. Her response took me by surprise:

– ‘A while ago I see a homeless man painting a picture on the street. In that second I realise that he is just a man like my son or my husband. He has a hand that he draws with, a mind that he thinks with and a heart that he feels with. He is a man, no more, no less.

The sight of him painting that beautiful piece of art cracked open my mind like a warm egg, which I fried, along with a deep-seated preconception that there was such a thing as a ‘homeless person’. In the moment when that poisonous seed was obliterated by the enlightenment of creativity I could see clearly that there was no such thing as ‘a homeless person’. 

Okay, she wasn’t quite as erudite as that but what she said really showed that creativity in all its forms is a way of generating empathy and respect between us humans so that we see the person in front of us rather than a preconceived notion of a person, stripped of their humanity.

And of course, she was right, there is no such thing as a ‘homeless person’, there are just people who happen not to have a home.

Hello everyone, it’s John Chiko once again. Today I will be talking about the migrant community of Coventry, which of course I am a part of as a national from Zimbabwe.

So, Coventry has a very diverse migrant community, as with the whole of West Midlands. There are people from all over the world, with more people coming to Coventry for education and employment opportunities. Most recently I have been meeting people from South America, from countries such as Honduras and Peru, which has been a very interesting experience, as Spanish is one of my favourite languages.

According to National Census data, more than one in four people now living in Coventry were not born in the UK. 27.9% of Coventry’s residents were born overseas in 2021, up from 21.2% 10 years earlier. Coventry has been a city of refuge for migrants for a long time. Its population increased rapidly in the late 1800s and 1900s as people flooded in from across the UK in search of work. Today it is a culturally diverse city with a population of 317,000, a quarter of which are from ethnic minority communities.

More than 12% have South Asian roots, while others come from Caribbean, African, Middle Eastern, Irish, and other European backgrounds. To put it simply, Coventry has got a thriving migrant community; however, there are vulnerable communities of migrants, particularly asylum seekers and refugees. These vulnerable migrant communities face significant challenges in Coventry. One of the most pressing issues is homelessness.

Without stable housing, individuals and families are forced to navigate the complexities of life on the streets, exposing them to various risks and hardships. According to a report by Coventry City Council, the number of homeless individuals in the city has been steadily increasing, with migrants comprising a significant proportion of this population. This highlights the urgent need for targeted interventions to address homelessness among vulnerable migrant groups.

In addition to homelessness, access to essential services such as healthcare is often limited for asylum seekers and refugees in Coventry. The NHS (National Health Service) is inaccessible to most asylum seekers and refugees who do not have the Right-to-Remain in the UK, meaning that they must potentially pay for NHS services, which they cannot do due to their status. How are migrants and asylum seekers expected to pay for health services when they are not even allowed to work and earn an income due to their status? This, results in preventable health issues going untreated and exacerbates existing health disparities within migrant communities.

Furthermore, the lack of access to social funds and welfare support further compounds the challenges faced by vulnerable migrants in Coventry. Without financial assistance, individuals and families struggle to meet their basic needs, including food, clothing, and transportation. This can perpetuate cycles of poverty and social exclusion, hindering efforts to achieve long-term stability and integration within the community.

Education is another area where vulnerable migrant communities in Coventry often face barriers. Despite efforts to promote inclusive education policies, many asylum seekers and refugees encounter obstacles in accessing formal education and training opportunities. Due to their status, they do not have access to education funding, meaning they cannot access courses and training without having to pay for them directly which they cannot do, due to their circumstances.

In addition to these systemic challenges, vulnerable migrant communities in Coventry also grapple with other social issues, including discrimination, isolation, and mental health concerns. Despite the city’s rich cultural diversity, instances of racism and xenophobia persist, creating barriers to social inclusion and belonging for many migrants. Moreover, the trauma of displacement and resettlement can take a toll on mental wellbeing, underscoring the need for culturally sensitive mental health support services.

Addressing these multifaceted challenges requires a coordinated and holistic approach that prioritises the needs and rights of vulnerable migrant communities. It’s imperative that local authorities, service providers, and community organisations work together to develop tailored support programs that address the unique circumstances and barriers faced by asylum seekers and refugees in Coventry.

In the words of Coventry’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Policing and Equalities, Councillor Abdul Salam Khan, “Coventry has a proud history of welcoming people from all over the world, and we are committed to ensuring that everyone who calls our city home has the support they need to thrive and succeed.” By upholding this commitment and investing in initiatives that promote inclusivity, equity, and social justice, Coventry can truly live up to its reputation as a city of refuge and opportunity for all.

References

There are really very few things more relevant to those of us who have had to recover from the experience of homelessness than planning and progression. For anyone who has had to piece their life back together after facing the type of anxiety-inducing chaos caused by living without a safe and secure place to call home, some sort of planned pathway will often be the key foundation stone in building an effective and ultimately sustainable recovery. 

For many of us, the initial part of our journey into homelessness will have involved some sort of chaos and disintegration. It is a period when life feels akin to being trapped in a tunnel where any and all opportunities to escape are either hidden by the darkness or scuppered by the time demanded by front-line survival. 

Very few of us will be able to identify a pathway through recovery without some sort of help, that’s for sure. The provision of metaphorical hands to guide us as we stumble our way towards the light at the end of this proverbial tunnel can make all the difference. While some of us will just need the single simple step of finding a home, most of us will need extra help to deal with other stuff like maintaining a tenancy, paying bills and finding something meaningful to fill our days.  

But apart from the practical side of recovering from homelessness there is an added factor that very few people seem to talk much about. Surely we are going to be more motivated to re-engage with mainstream society if we don’t think that mainstream society is a steaming pile of shite.  

I’m generally a glass totally full type of person, but when I was on the streets that glass was full of piss. I gave up on society and it took me a long time, some old friends, a few new ones, a touch of N.A, some timely counselling and a Housing Association tenancy to put myself on the path to a sustainable recovery.,  

All of these things had to be there for me to find my way back from the margins, but I got to wondering recently if part of my willingness to re-engage had been based on a massive misconception about the state of mainstream society. I believed then, and still did until a few days ago, that we now live in an increasingly progressive and accepting world. What changed my perception so dramatically was a simple question and an even more simple follow up statement from someone half my age.  

The question was this.  

“Do you think this world is a better place than it was when you were a kid?” 

 My answer was swift and unequivocal. 

“Of course it is. It’s a million miles away from the world I grew up in 50 years ago. It’s moved past tolerance to acceptance, and I feel more welcome as someone who used to be seen as unwanted by many because my parents were mixed race. Misogyny, homophobia and racism are not openly accepted in the way they used to be and child abuse is an issue that we no longer sweep under the carpet.”,’  

The simple statement that has such an impact on me was this. 

“‘But you live in London.”’ 

In the blink of a brain cell, I understood that my view of how fair and decent the world is seems to be a certain way, despite being aware that many people in the world live in countries, systems and societies that have become increasingly intolerant over the past 50 years.  

But hot on the heels of this realisation came another; perhaps I’d been looking at this issue through the wrong lens.  

I remember early in my recovery being subconsciously motivated by something positive in the mainstream society I was attempting to rejoin but if I had on some level been aware that the majority of mainstream societies around the world were corrupt and built on wonky arsed political, financial and social systems created to corral us all into our crude fitting folds. So what was it that I found so inspiring and attractive in the cesspit of modern life? In a word, the people.  

It wasn’t my outlook on the state of the world that helped to motivate my recovery, it was the example of some of the amazing people who live in it. Nurses, doctors, bus drivers, firemen, the woman behind the counter at Starbucks, the bloke who sweeps the roads near me who I chat to every day and the rest of the decent people who do their best to look after themselves and their families. What we all have in common is that we are human beings and humans being human are what makes the shittest of systems worth living in.  

I work for a charity that is fuelled by a culture rooted in kindness and inclusion and it encourages the staff and volunteers to behave in a way that is characterised by acceptance and understanding. If we applied this ethos to our society, from educating our kids to the way we interact and develop as people, we could soon start to create a way of life based on kindness, honesty and community.  

The flawed systems and societies we live in have been largely developed at the behest of powerful men and their vested interests. While democratic countries may be doing a little better when it comes to creating progressive societies and systems, they are still very far from being places that represent the people whose blood, sweat and laughter keep the wheels turning and the lights on. 

And so, if you are looking for some motivation to inspire your recovery, try not to look at the big picture. It is very easy to feel alienated from the mainstream with all its historical flaws and systemic failures and you don’t need to believe in it to start re-engaging and taking part. What you will need though is some faith in people because you are one of them and the foundation of any sustainable recovery is a little self belief. 

The pungent aroma of freshly ground coffee, the delicious odour of croissants baked with almonds, the hustle and bustle of many feet as they clamour for attention at the counter. I notice a reflection and I stare through myself as I gaze longingly at the reaches beyond my reach.

My eyes sting from the bitter tears that fall silently down my cheeks and my stomach growls painfully in anticipation of a meal that is beyond my means. I move away, leaving my reflection behind, only for it to re-join me at the next window where the cycle of desire begins yet again, as my body slowly starves.

Shuffling slowly down the street, I’m assaulted by the same sensations over and over again, flashes of food – followed by twinges of pain and then realise that they are ghost images caused by the salt in my tears. I smile, a greeting to a passer-by, but, as with the thousands of smiles I’ve sent before, they are not returned. Like my own shadow, I feel invisible. I wipe my eyes with a dirty cuff and continue my lonely walk in the vain hope that I may receive a meal this day. 

Image by Issi Nash  Instagram @issi_nash1

TEXT FROM AUDIO

There’s a difference at the moment. There are a lot of people who are computer illiterate but nowadays people start using tablets and phones from a very early age.  So, it‘’s not so much of a problem for them as it used to be for the older generation who have never used them and have never been brought up with them.

They have real trouble accessing digital devices, real trouble working on them and they get sanctioned constantly because of it. But with the younger ones they are using computers from a very early age and I think things are going to change over the next ten years where people are going through and leaving school and getting in to problems because of trauma in their youth.

But there is always going to be people who are computer illiterate and there needs to be a system where people can get trained.  

Again the library used to do this.  Not like the job centre. It has got to be an open place. I think where you have got all these cafes that open up that they …I meant the type of community cafes where people experiencing homelessness can go and get a bite to eat, they should be dual places where people can go and they can get access to a tablet and someone who knows how to work the tablets so they can bring people through and help these people understand what they are doing and navigate stuff like the journals.   

So there are lots of cafes that are open for people on low income and are homeless but all they do is give em food. But in this day and age people need more than food. To get their own life together and to gain their independence they also have their benefits.

So these places should also open up and provide someone who is technologically savvy and teaches people how to work on the tablets, and teach people what to do when they get in to problems. And also provide the hardware for people so that they can gain access to the digital world. 

I think it is a trick missed by a lot of these community cafes right now.     

“Prior to the pandemic we would highlight people with health needs who were rough sleeping.  Get them off the street, put them into ICN beds and have kind of wrap around physical health support with me, and the specialist homeless GP practices, and give them respite.  It prevents hospital admissions basically. So the model for the coronavirus is essentially exactly the same thing, just huge. We have got hundreds of people in now, rather than four. And it’s exactly the same thing, but we are putting people in hotel rooms so they can isolate.”

Dave escorted the first people who were rough sleeping to the hotel in Wandsworth and he supported the residents the hotel for the first week before falling ill with the virus himself;

“I always like to keep busy and I am out all day working – to go from that to staying at home for ten days, it’s really, really challenging.  And then you have the kind of mental health aspects. A lot of people are talking about anxieties, depression coming back. And that can be around physical health, but also around the general situation society is currently in. We are all wondering how long this is going to last for.”

Dave is currently working wherever he’s needed. He’s worked in the hotels screening residents for COVID-19 and with the medical teams to ensure the residents health needs are being met. Dave says if a person does develop COVID-19 symptoms, they are transferred via black cab to another facility;

“We used the black cabs because there is a natural screen divider between the driver and the passenger…And obviously they haven’t got any work because nobody is really out. So they were identified as ideal. So Westminster paid for two cab drivers and they were just a godsend.” 

Dave says a pan London approach has worked, things are much better compared to at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis;

“So as you can imagine at first, it was quite difficult to put that altogether.  Different agencies, different boroughs, if you can imagine a lot of people have been dispersed. That’s been the big challenge. A lot of people let’s say…Westminster clients are being placed…places like Wandsworth or out of borough or even the other way round.  If somebody is kind of…the outer boroughs can be Lambeth, City, Camden – they are being placed in hotels in other boroughs.  That makes it more difficult.  But it is happening now.” 

Dave explains that some of the barriers with gaining methadone scripting for clients have been removed, as have some of the restrictions for people without recourse to public funds which has made supporting these clients easier. He talks about the emerging mental health needs of his clients and what services are doing to support people who are self-isolating. In Westminster, clients who are known to mental health services are being provided a phone support service and psychologists are going into the hotels where people are self- isolating up to three times a week to provide extra support;

“Yeah there is a lot going on. A lot of really good work. But I think its slightly different in Westminster compared to other boroughs. And Westminster is certainly the forefront, they started first. They are kind of the model. So I think other councils are taking the lead from Westminster and picking it up as they go. But a lot of services are in place now in Westminster, whether its mental health, drug and alcohol, physical health – they’re all in place.”

Dave has seen the impact on the workers in the hotels;

“People are…working extremely long hours, putting themselves at risk, going to work.  Extremely high stress situations.  Making life and death decisions. The emotional impacts that must have on the workers.  But the clients as well – it’s kind of two-fold, we are all in the same boat.  Whether you are a client, a patient or a professional -we are all in the same boat.  We are sharing this together. The anxieties are still the same.” 

And the impact on the client’s he’s worked with;

“The first night that I went out, we had a lady in who was a Polish lady and I was looking for her and I found her at Connections when it was still open. And I explained that we had a hotel room for her. But she had a partner and he wasn’t on the list. So trying to convince someone to leave their partner and come inside – it was quite emotional, they were both crying. And it was difficult for me to say look, we want to make you this offer, but he can’t come, it’s just you. So, I separated a couple…Yeah, so I made sure she had a phone and she had credit so they could speak every day. But to try and convince someone for their own health to come in, but to leave their partner… it was very, very emotional.”

Dave remains positive that this situation can improve working relationships and bring us closer together;

“I think for me it’s really highlighted the delicate nature out society is in, as well as our personal situations. So, I think that could potentially bring us together. But also, I hope that the homeless population have seen the hard work that everyone is putting in.  We have scooped up I think… across London, we are looking at 1100 people into hotel rooms.  So, I am hoping that it will bring us closer together, because clients will say do you know that? The local authorities, the GP practices, all tried really hard to protect them and get them in. And hopefully that forms a lasting relationship moving forward”. 

Dave says it’s hugely positive that services have come together to joint work and provide the best support possible;

“It’s services coming together as well, it really is.  It was always getting better if …services joint working. But at the moment it’s incredible. Absolutely incredible. Services really working together across the board – drug and alcohol, mental health, homeless health, commissioners. Everybody is working together.  It’s incredible.”