Homelessness charity At Home in Guernsey supported more than 125 people last year.
In its annual impact report, the charity said it supported people in various situations, from people who are sofa-surfing to people who had been given eviction notices.
‘I think the interesting thing is that it’s just been such a variety of situations that we’ve encountered,’ said At Home in Guernsey CEO Charlie Cox.
‘Some of our first clients were a single mum with a little baby who was struggling to find anywhere and was in a really unsuitable accommodation, all the way through to your average person in their mid-40s, working, struggling to afford rent.
‘More recently, we’ve had a lot of older clients who’ve been given eviction notices, who’ve perhaps been in the same private rental for maybe 10, 15, 20 years and suddenly got an eviction notice, and trying to find somewhere for them in the current housing market has been really difficult.
‘Often there might be something else that’s going on for that person and that can be as simple as having a pet or a child, or needing to be on the ground floor or whatever it might be.
‘We have to tailor our support to make sure that we’re helping people in the way that’s best going to work for them.
‘Sometimes that’s as simple as a bit of advice over the phone initially, and actually people have got all the skills they need to be able to take that action, but often it’s more about sitting alongside people in meetings and helping them navigate paperwork and all that sort of stuff.’
Of its current clients, a significant number are over-65s who have been given eviction notices, and At Home in Guernsey has been helping to try to find suitable accommodation for them before their eviction date.
‘We’ve got quite a few clients at the moment who are over-65, which is hugely sad for us.
'It’s sad for anybody, but you kind of think in your later life when you get on your pension that you’re secure and stable for a while, so suddenly then to be at risk of being homeless is heartbreaking,’ said Ms Cox.
The States of Guernsey Poverty Index report suggests that approximately 1,000 people may be experiencing homelessness in Guernsey.
‘They based that on some really rough data which looked at the number of times people declared different addresses in a year period, their understanding of homelessness.
‘But what we absolutely knew last year coming into this was that we really didn’t have a clear picture, so one of the things we did in November last year, together with the Committee for Housing, was launch the homelessness notification form,’ said Ms Cox.
‘It’s a really simple online form that we encourage people to complete, whether it’s a service that comes in contact with somebody, or people can just go and complete it themselves, just to tell us a bit more about their situation.
‘We’ve had 147 of those forms completed today, some of whom have chosen to remain anonymous, but those are people who we know are experiencing homelessness.
‘I think experiencing homelessness, or the thought that you are going to be experiencing homelessness, is a really difficult conversation. Often people will leave it to the last minute to take action. People might think something will come up or “I’ll find somewhere”, that kind of hopeful thinking.
‘Then the reality sets in that they still haven’t been offered anywhere or there isn’t anywhere within their price range.
‘We know there’s loads more people out there that we could be helping and, for us as a new charity, building the trust of the community in terms of people reaching out for support has been really important.’
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