Many of us found it disorientating when the country went into lockdown in March 2020 as Covid-19 took hold, but for people experiencing homelessness it was particularly frightening. Imagine being told you had to “stay indoors” when you didn’t have a home, or finding out that the friends whose sofas you were relying on no longer wanted the risk of an extra person in the house.
For Crisis, a charity that supports people who are homeless, a rapid rethink of its services – mostly provided in person and face-to-face – was needed. In normal times, the charity’s 11 Skylight centres welcome people experiencing homelessness through their doors and offer training and support with housing, helping them find and keep a rented home.
The government’s Everyone In scheme, under which local authorities were told to move people who were sleeping rough (37,000 in total) into emergency accommodation such as hotels, proved a valuable short-term intervention, but Crisis needed to back this up by supporting members (its name for service users) to access local authority and other services, as the needs of members didn’t disappear. “It was really important for the client-facing staff to help advocate for their members, because they might have been struggling to get hold of other support services who were overwhelmed, whether that’s setting up appointments with GPs or even helping reschedule an appointment with probation,” says Matt Cruz, who works in Crisis’s community and events fundraising team.
Rather than stopping its services, Crisis found new ways to deliver them. Skylight activities moved online, while classes, coaching and advice sessions, employment advice, and even entertainment were all provided over Zoom. Many of Crisis’s members don’t have online access so, with funding from Tesco Mobile, Crisis provided free mobile phones, laptops and data allowances to its members, enabling 9,000 people to make use of its online services. (Some staff also arranged to meet members face-to-face, when appropriate.) The switch to online delivery was so successful that, although face-to-face services have resumed, the provision of services online will continue for those who need them.
Crisis also set up the In This Together grant programme to help other homelessness services and charities to respond to the pandemic. It meant, says Cruz, that those services could offer “immediate support in terms of providing essentials such as food, clothing, toiletries, PPE and mobile phones”. Because many people who were homeless weren’t registered with a GP, there was a risk that they would be missed by the vaccination programme so, working with NHS practitioners and homelessness charities, Crisis persuaded the government to make sure people were registered with GPs and given priority.
Building on the Everyone In scheme, Crisis at Christmas made hotel spaces available for 475 guests for two weeks over the holiday period, rather than in dormitories as in previous years.
Volunteers delivered food, clothing and gifts to guests in their rooms, and offered onsite health and wellbeing services, while support, counselling and befriending services were provided online. Shelagh Kirkland, a longstanding Crisis at Christmas volunteer, says guests appreciated the warmth and safety of being able to sleep indoors, in their own room. “They just felt complete security,” she says. “Guests were so amazed that they got a space to themselves, that they could close their door and that space was theirs.”
Such was the success of the hotels that Crisis at Christmas will continue to use them this year (the service also took place last year). And, in a sign of a return to normal, it will also be running its day centres, where people who are homeless can enjoy Christmas lunches, companionship and some festive fun. Members can also avail of showers, hairdressing services, massages and even manicures while there.
To help fund its work, Crisis runs 11 shops in London that raise money and also provide work experience for its members. The charity opened an ecommerce arm last year. Now fully operational, it sells a combination of preloved items and new clothes donated by brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Hush, as well as jewellery, face cream and chocolate. “Little things”, says Kim Collins, head of ecommerce, “that people are willing to invest the money in”. All the profits from the online store go directly to the charity. The top seller is soap from the social enterprise Labre’s Hope, followed by Christmas ou cards, jewellery, hand cream and lip balm.
There are plans to sell cards showcasing members’ artwork, and jewellery they have made, helping them earn money through their own talents. Crisis’s main job, Collins points out, is to help people “get out of homelessness”. As well as bringing in money for the charity, the retail site will help kickstart members’ own businesses.
As the lockdowns fade into memory, Crisis’s services have returned to normal – with the added bonus that online services will continue to complement face-to-face services, while the ecommerce arm runs alongside the bricks-and-mortar shops, as well as hotel stays becoming a permanent part of Crisis’s offerings.
Despite the success of the Everyone In programme, the problem of homelessness, now exacerbated by the cost of living crisis, hasn’t gone away. The pandemic has proven just how nimble and adaptable Crisis is. But it never loses sight of its core vision: “A future”, in the words of chief executive Matt Downie, “where homelessness is a thing of the past”.
If you’re interested in ending homelessness by volunteering, campaigning, fundraising or making a donation to Crisis, and want to find out more, visit crisis.org.uk
