Today, Sunday 6th October, is Homelessness Sunday. Homelessness Sunday is an annual event organised by Housing Justice and occurs on the Sunday that falls before world homelessness day on the 10th of October. It is a day for all of us to remember those who have passed in the last year whilst homeless.
Homelessness has been rising significantly this year. According to the April – June 2024 quarterly report from Chain:
Outreach teams recorded seeing 1931 people rough sleeping for the first time in London. This is a 20% increase from last year’s report during the same period, where 1619 people were recorded rough sleeping for the first time.
Of these 1931 people, 624 people were confirmed to have been living on the streets. This is a 52% increase from the same period last year.
The total number of people seen rough sleeping was 4223, this is a 29% increase from last year.
CommUNITY:
This year the theme is ‘Homelessness ends with communities’.
The importance of community:
Community is a huge part of the Emmaus model. We understand that it is not an easy task for people struggling with homelessness to get back on their feet after, and different people have different levels of support needs. That is why we allow our companions to live in communities to boost their confidence.
We work hard to ensure that our communities are safe, comfortable and welcoming for our companions. Community harmony is very important. It can be challenging to have a large number of people who have struggled with trauma to adapt to living in a shared space, but we always do our best to ensure everyone is looked after and treated fairly.
The Emmaus SLC communities:
We have communities in Lambeth and Croydon that house up to 48 companions.
What we do in our communities:
Our companions work different jobs to help support the community. Jobs range from working in our shops, completing pickups and deliveries on our vans, performing house clearances, upcycling, pat testing, cooking in our kitchen and cleaning the communal areas.
We also encourage our companions to expand their education and learn new skills. We help our companions enrol on local college courses, attend workshops and learn hands-on skills in our communities such as upcycling furniture. For example, our former companions Mark completed a course which allowed him to be qualified to secure a job and move on from us. Read his story here.
How we support our companions:
As we said earlier, it can be a challenge adapting to living in a community. We recognise this and try to make the experience as positive as possible.
Yvette, our ETE Coach, works closely with our companions to help them understand digital inclusion and engage with their personal hobbies like booking cinema and theatre tickets. We spoke to Yvette about her role more in-depth here.
We asked Pavlin, one of our companions living in our BVH community some questions about his experience living in an Emmaus SLC community.
In your opinion, what are the positives of living in a community setting?
I had not lived in a community before Emmaus, so I didn’t know what it would be like. I think it has allowed me to meet new people.
What are the benefits of living with a diverse group of people?
Everybody is different with different opinions. Despite this I have met people I would not have normally met and made new friends.
Would you recommend Emmaus as an option for people struggling with homelessness?
Yes, it is the right place to sort out your life and get back on the right track. Being in this community has given me a roof over my head, good food, meaningful work and an opportunity to retake control of life.
Recently Pavlin has been taking part in the Cooking with Confidence course. This has allowed him to learn new skills which will benefit him in the future.
Read more of our companion stories here.