The needs of homeless people are changing during the COVID-19 crisis and the 999 Club is changing to meet them.
The guests in our Night Shelter (NS) and the rough sleepers visiting our day centre have joined tens of thousands of others across the country being placed in self-contained hotels and temporary accommodation (TA) to self isolate for at least 12 weeks.
As quickly as existing homeless people are accommodated, new people are becoming homeless eg. through illegal evictions and the closure of institutions.
Rough sleepers and people experiencing homelessness are one of the most vulnerable groups of adults in the UK. They often have complex physical and mental health issues and issues around substance misuse. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they are more likely to feel isolated, unwanted by society and self-isolation may be quite difficult for them to accept and adhere to. Most of us will have our own places to self-isolate, friends we can have virtual chats and meetings with. Most of us still continue to work to keep us occupied. For a rough sleeper who has very little, these are the things they cannot rely on. They can spend all day alone indoors self-isolating, which can have a huge impact on their mental health. Government advice is to ‘stay at home, stay safe’. This may work for most of us, but sadly not for homeless people who don’t have anywhere to go to.
We also fear that with nearly a million Universal Credit claims recorded in the past two weeks there will be long waiting times for people who are in urgent need to access funding.
Update on 15 January 2021
As a temporary measure, the 999 Club reception is closed in the mornings. Clients can only attend appointments they’ve already made. This allows us to concentrate on minimising risks for staff, volunteers and clients. We will be offering appointments at 10am and 11am. To make an appointment, please call: 0772 725 4603 or 0772 725 8759 between 9.30am and 4pm weekdays. We will review this as lockdown conditions continue. Thank you.
Update on 11 May 2020
As the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a huge impact on everyday life for most of us, life for homeless people continues to be much harder.
Homeless people are one of society’s most exposed, vulnerable and at-risk groups and this has never been more apparent than during the current coronavirus epidemic. The current mortality rate of homeless people is exceptionally high for their respective age groups. Rough sleepers have half the life expectancy of the rest of the population and are amongst those most likely to develop serious virus complications.
We are concerned this situation could worsen and we are working to secure food and shelter for the rough sleepers we help.
Recent Government estimate (1 May 2020) indicates that over 90% of rough sleepers now have been placed into self-contained accommodation. The official estimate for Lewisham is not known. However, we estimate that there are at least 15 rough sleepers, that we remain in contact with, who are still on the streets.
We work along with Lewisham Council and with other local authorities to place rough sleepers in self-contained accommodation where they can be supported ‘to stay at home’ along with the rest of the population.
After closing our Night Shelter and Day Centre following government advice, we supported around 110 clients into hotels or temporary accommodation across London. Whilst self-isolation brings protection, it also means the end of an essential point of human contact and supportive community for those already in crisis. Staying in self-isolation in a hotel room or temporary accommodation, being scared and away from people or areas familiar to them is really hard for most people. For clients who struggle with physical/mental health issues, it is even harder – life can become quite bleak and their future quite uncertain, with many financial and health-related worries. Those with no active benefits also rely entirely on emergency day-to-day food donations.
We are working round the clock to adapt existing operations to support all guests previously in our night shelter, now accommodated in London hotels and temporary accommodations. Our staff keep contact over phone/internet to let clients know they’re not alone, so they can continue self-isolating. Remote casework operations via phone, WhatsApp, Zoom etc, continue essential and emergency signposting for mental health, substance/domestic abuse, asylum and benefits issues. As the leading Lewisham homelessness charity, we are working tirelessly to ensure clients get the correct support and government / Public Health advice.
As quickly as clients are accommodated, new people are becoming homeless through illegal evictions and institutional closures. Remote phone support has been extended to people who relied on our Day Centre and we continue to relocate rough sleepers. Over 40 clients have been given essential contact phones and we are liaising with Lewisham Council to get vulnerable people off the streets ASAP.
Basic needs
Where homeless people move into unfurnished or incompletely furnished accommodation during this period we aim to furnish and equip the accommodations to a reasonable standard so that they can live there in basic comfort for at least 12 weeks and effectively self-isolate.
In a normal situation, where the landlord does not provide enough to furnish and equip a typical privately rented or temporary accommodation; we will purchase items like the following to make the room comfortable:
- A bed
- A table and two chairs
- A wardrobe
- Bedside table
- A duvet, duvet cover, bedsheet and pillow
- Toaster, kettle and other cooking equipment (pots and pans etc)
- A starter pack of food and groceries
- A starter pack of toiletries and cleaning products
- A digital tablet to access the internet and keep in contact
Meanwhile, we are also collaborating with local aid organisations, food suppliers and volunteers to start support packs for people who are in privately rented and temporary accommodation. Each pack will also include up to date information about COVID-19 and helpline numbers for other support agencies that can provide phone/online support.
Potentially more people are going to become homeless as a result of this crisis so we want to be there to support people who are newly homeless. We are putting together our strategy for this.
Whilst our core Operations team’s casework is supported by existing, flexible funders, new costs incurred for redeployed staff, emergency food, PPE and digital access are not. Staff redeployment and cancelled events have put core reserve funding under significant pressure with a projected £100K to £200K loss.
For more information on our services or if you would like to support us please contact us here.
You can support us financially by donating at https://999club.org/make-a-donation/ or by donating sanitising products.
Thank you for your continued support.
Update on 3 April 2020
The 20 guests in our Night Shelter (NS) were assessed by a doctor on Wednesday 25th March and 13 of them were moved to 3 hotels across London.
In the next two days, we managed to rehouse 6 more people into temporary accommodation sourced by Lewisham Council. They will all be there for a minimum of 12 weeks. This was the 2nd of a 4 phase plan to get everybody that is homeless into self-contained accommodation.
Phase 3 is getting everybody who is rough sleeping across the Lewisham borough and the whole country into hotels and self-contained accommodations. That has made a big impact on our day centre. We are working with Lewisham Council, the homelessness outreach team and StreetLink to identify everybody that we have been in contact within the last few months who have been coming to our Day Centre, and to get them into accommodation. That process is happening but it is more fragmented than the process for the NS, which took place on a single day. We are identifying people and getting them verified as rough sleepers before they can be moved into accommodation.
All Local Authorities received a letter from Luke Hall MP Minister of Housing, Communities and Local Government on Friday 27th March, to ask them to close down temporarily any day centre provision for homeless people as part of this wider process of social distancing and self-isolation.
We have therefore ceased the daily operation of our day centre as a temporary measure. Our staff are now working with people who have been coming to our day centre to make sure that they are accessing these emergency accommodations being provided (30-35 people). Once they are in the accommodation we will then be supporting them on an ongoing basis while they are there. This moves our service to a different phase on a temporary basis.
What we are doing
As the leading homelessness charity in the borough of Lewisham, it is our duty to ensure that we give the right support, in line with government and Public Health advice to these individuals. Our staff will continue to stay in touch and maintain contact with people we are supporting over the phone/internet to let them know that they are not alone. We are here for them to guide and give them enough support so that they can follow Public Health advice and continue to self-isolate.
We are continuing to provide support to all the guests who were in the night shelter and are now accommodated in hotels and in temporary accommodation across London. We are doing this remotely via phone, WhatsApp, Zoom etc, signposting and making sure that their concerns and worries have been heard to and listened and information provided to support them. These concerns include drug and alcohol use, benefit claims, coronavirus updates, physical and mental health issues.
We are continuing to provide the same support to all the guests who we have rehoused into the privately rented accommodations over the last 12 months. We will continue working with them on their benefit applications.
Finally, the remote phone support we give will extend to people who have relied on our Day Centre Gateway. We have given phones to everyone so we can maintain contact with them. We are liaising with Lewisham Council to get these vulnerable people off the streets ASAP.
Basic needs
Where homeless people move into unfurnished or incompletely furnished accommodation during this period we will aim to furnish and equip the accommodations to a reasonable standard so that they can live there in basic comfort for at least 12 weeks and effectively self-isolate.
We will also support these individuals through the next 12 weeks and help them access online courses, training and education.
In a normal situation, where the landlord does not provide enough to furnish and equip a typical privately rented or temporary accommodation; we will purchase items like the following to make the room comfortable:
- A bed
- A table and two chairs
- A wardrobe
- Bedside table
- A duvet, duvet cover, bedsheet and pillow
- Toaster, kettle and other cooking equipment (pots and pans etc)
- A starter pack of food and groceries.
- A starter pack of toiletries and cleaning products
- A digital tablet to access the internet and keep in contact
Meanwhile, we are also collaborating with local aid organisations, food suppliers and volunteers to start support packs for people who are in privately rented and temporary accommodation. Each pack will also include up to date information about COVID-19 and helpline numbers for other support agencies that can provide phone/online support.
Potentially more people are going to become homeless as a result of this crisis so we want to be there to support people who are newly homeless. We are putting together our strategy for this.
For more information on our services or if you would like to support us please contact us here.
You can support us financially by donating at https://999club.org/make-a-donation/ or by donating sanitising products and long-life food.
Thank you for your continued support.
Update on 20 March 2020
As Coronavirus (also known as COVID-19) continues to spread, 999 Club are addressing daily how best to serve people experiencing homelessness. We have set up an emergency response task force to provide the best environment for clients and staff to carry out their day-to-day activities, and swiftly react to the latest government measures:
- Our Gateway Day Centre and Emergency Night Shelter remain open to people experiencing homelessness.
- We aim to stay open as long as we have enough staff and volunteers
- We frequently clean and disinfect regularly touched objects and surfaces using standard cleaning products
- If a member of staff (or volunteer) becomes unwell on-site with a new, continuous cough or a high temperature, they are sent home
- If someone becomes unwell in our Day Centre, and they do not have a home or room in which to self-isolate, we isolate them temporarily in an area of the Day centre and while the staff contact the local authority (and Public Health)
- Staff, volunteers, service users and visitors are reminded to wash their hands for 20 seconds, more frequently and catch coughs and sneezes in tissues
We are implementing all the measures outlined in Government and NHS guidance wherever these are achievable. However, the big issue is how homeless people, and rough sleepers in particular, can self-isolate. Further guidance on these issues is promised.
- We have temporarily stopped some volunteer-led activities such as office help in order to focus our resources in other areas during this health crisis. We have individually contacted volunteers to discuss their volunteer roles at 999 Club.
- We are in great need of donations at 999 Club in order to focus resources on the highest needs. If you can please donate food supplies that are in date and kept at the right temperature, sanitising products (particularly hand-gel, sanitiser sprays, toilet paper, paper towels & other items that are in short supply). Supplies we already have of these will be distributed when needed.
- In line with Government/NHS policy regarding Covid-19 our on-site GP, nurse and mental health nurse clinics will not be seeing patients face-to-face. Any person/individual from the 999 Club’s homeless/rough sleepers group wanting advice should phone NHS 111 for expert advice.
In addition, we have carried out prompt action to support our staff and clients, such as:
- Provide detailed information on how to prevent the virus from spreading and what to do if unwell
- Purchase sanitising products in bulk and distribute to all our beneficiaries
- Update risk assessments on our site
- Update our business continuity plans
- Expand our infrastructure to allow as many staff as practical to work remotely
- Provide regular progress updates
All of the above actions are already set in motion. As the situation continues to change, 999 Club will strive to continue providing services for people experiencing homelessness, respond to updates from Public Health England and be ready for any scenarios.
Contact: office@999club.org