Emmaus is different to other homeless charities, like the night shelters and other places you hear about on the street. Apart from the no drugs and alcohol policy, and the fact that you have to come off benefits, there aren’t the same restrictions as there would be at a night shelter.
You come in off the street or wherever, and Emmaus’ main objective is to get you back into society: to help you get job, somewhere to live and get you back on your feet – as long as you help yourself as well.
My role at Emmaus
I’m in the kitchen at the community home at the moment, but I do a bit of everything; I help where it is needed. This is our home, so you work as a team. If someone is sick and you’re covering their role, you should at least be able to help in the shop or on the van, health permitting, of course.
It is hard work, but my favourite role is the kitchen, because everyone likes my food. I cook for 18 people, but we worked out there are about ten who eat at each sitting, because you’re not tied to eat with everyone else at Emmaus. You are not told you have to eat what is cooked; there are other options in the fridges and freezers.
As a community there is an element of feeling like you have to gel, but on the flip side, you don’t have to associate with other companions if you don’t want to. You can just go to work and be by yourself if you want to. Although people do enjoy it and de-stress when they sit down together. It is valuable to have that option.
My typical day
I start in the kitchens at 9am and I always think ahead. Dietary requirements can be challenging, but there’s plenty of choice in the fridges, freezers and on the shelves.
I begin my day by sorting out what’s for lunch and dinner from the freezers. I am doing a lot of salad prep and fresh baking. I will use food from the gardens at Emmaus, when it comes to me. I chop and prepare, and work out how much I need, because I don’t like wastage. People are chatty when they sit down together to eat. It can be a nice time for people to get together and talk.
We share washing up as a team. I have never been brought up that one person has one job. You have your main roles, but you work as a team. You don’t give everything to a kitchen porter to wash by themselves.
I’ll have done the evening meal prep in the morning. It’s not a massive undertaking. I prepped a casserole in the morning, for example, and I’m baking as well, cakes and stuff. I’ve always done that anyway. If we’ve got the ingredients in, I’ll do cake or some sort of dessert. Why shouldn’t companions have it? I’ve also promised I’ll do some gluten free bread and I’m planning a carrot cake, if we have the ingredients in.
My working history
I am a Fifer from Dunfermline. I moved around a lot as a child because of my dad’s work, then I got the bug to travel around the UK. Not many people can say they have travelled their own country. The 80s and 90s was great for that. I did hospitality, front of house, for 20 years. I would say ‘how long do you want me for?’ when I got to places. Then after 2000 it got harder and harder to get jobs, you had to fill out massive application forms and managers were stricter and more wanted more experience. You couldn’t switch your job, and you had to stick where you were.
Sometimes I left jobs because of situations that happen in the workplace. I don’t like confrontation. So, if something difficult turns up and I don’t like it or if someone annoys me or the managers aren’t approachable, I would leave. I found being out of work hard.
Sleeping in my car
I was pushed into homelessness following the breakdown of a relationship of ten years, and because of drink and drugs. I ended up in Plymouth. I didn’t know how I got there. I just woke up by the water and I thought this is a bit bad. I lived in Plymouth for a couple of years, then I went back to my ex and that went tits up. I was living next door to him. I had lots of triggers linked to Devon, where Plymouth is, and I kept telling my ex time and time again that I felt like this and he wouldn’t listen. That’s why it ended the way it did.
I found Emmaus though the service that connects people rough sleeping with local services, StreetLink. I was sleeping in my car. You can’t turn the heating on in older cars because it burns your petrol and my MOT was due up soon. The seats did go back, but sleeping was uncomfortable. I just ate cheap food from the supermarket with the money I had left and there was a nice chip shop that gave these big portions. It wasn’t great for my mental health.
When I finally sought help and StreetLink told me my options, I said I didn’t want to be in a hostel because there is still stigma surrounding gay people. I would have felt vulnerable and threatened because of some people’s might have thought I was a target. StreetLink said there was an inclusive community with gay allies, Emmaus. StreetLink said Emmaus was also longer-term rather than one night, so these factors helped me decide.
How Emmaus supports me
I’m quite low needs. I helped myself come off drink and drugs and the rule of no drinking and no drugs at Emmaus has helped me stay that way. When someone says you can’t do this in this establishment, you abide by it.
I don’t know what I want to do in the future yet, so being able to be at Emmaus in the longer-term is helpful while I come to a decision. Emmaus puts savings aside for when you leave. I would spent it otherwise because I have never managed my money, I’m a shopaholic. I like sorting through donations. I like finding clothes, sometimes I can wear these myself. It’s important to reuse clothes as much as find new uses for ingredients. I feel that we are very much a throwaway society.
Helping Emmaus Glasgow’s soup kitchen
I cook food for Emmaus Glasgow’s soup kitchen. Volunteers, like Jean, serve it out and one of the other companions Barry collects other food donations from high street chains. Emmaus Glasgow has organised this for many years.
I help the soup kitchen because you are giving something back and you don’t know when you are going to be there again – homeless.
When I was with my ex, there were times when we would have to choose between eating and heating. It was sometimes like that, we had to sacrifice one for the other, despite the fact we were both working. I was on a low income, and he was self-employed. We couldn’t get housing benefit because we had to be earning less than £92 per week at the time. We could pay out rent, but there would be months when we needed some new clothes, but we couldn’t afford it, and the cost-of-living crisis has made this worse for people. It’s just a case of go to work, go to bed, sleep, and do this all again.
I try not to think about the financial difficulties other people are facing. Everyone should have more help from the government. To me, the only people who seemed to get help were families with kids under a certain age or if you were a certain age. Single people get missed. What help did we get through Covid? All we had was money off our energy bills.
Why help Emmaus?
People should help Emmaus so the charity can support people move on when they are ready, and help people improve their mental health, and progress to something better. At Emmaus you can get the training and work experience to move on. More people need to know about the help available at Emmaus.
If I was speaking to someone in a similar situation to me, I’d say don’t be afraid to ask for help. I think a lot of people are scared to do this, especially if they’re worried about how people will perceive them as a gay person. I reached out to StreetLink because I was sleeping in my car for a couple of weeks, so I referred myself. I would say don’t be scared to ask for help. Good organisations don’t judge.
If you or someone you know is experiencing homelessness and would like to learn more about the help available from Emmaus Glasgow, visit our Homelessness Help page here.