You’re from Czech Republic, yeah?
Hope Housing is a homeless charity in Bradford
to provide homes and night stays for the homeless.
We help anybody in Bradford that is at risk
of sleeping rough for that night.
We have an emergency assessment centre in Bradford
that can accommodate up to 20 people
and we also have volunteers across Bradford
to have homeless people stay in their homes.
We were set up to fill in gaps
where people might be falling through the gaps
of service provision,
we were set up to try and bridge those gaps.
So if people can access accommodation elsewhere
we try and help them to access that accommodation
or those resources
but if they can’t access any help anywhere
then we try our hardest to help those clients.
It’s really great to hear different people’s stories of their lives
and we meet all sorts of people,
with all sorts of stories
who have ended up on hard times.
We’ve had one guy who’s a helicopter pilot,
somebody else who was a professional shop fitter,
as well as meeting people who have got addiction issues
or that are suffering from relationship breakdown.
We also meet people from all across the world
who might be coming here
because they’re fleeing persecution in their own country
and haven’t been able to get the help that they need here.
Our main aims are to help people overcome
their issues and homelessness
and that requires more than just a roof over their head.
So when people first meet with us,
we will do an initial assessment
and then we work through with them
to work out what the barriers are for them accessing housing,
what kind of accommodation is going to be good for them,
what kind of support they need.
We’ve always been a charity to try and help
with alternative solutions,
maybe that is a train ticket to a family member
where they can stay
or maybe it’s some work boots
so they can get that job they’ve got lined up.
So we try to help with a whole range of things
that really is what a client needs,
a client centred approach
to help them escape homelessness
and get back on their feet again.
When I was a student
I studied sociology and social psychology.
I was involved in lots of other societies and groups
to campaign and,
especially issues around poverty and social injustice
and I was very interested in those kind of societies as a student
and I also volunteered at a homeless project.
Those things inspired me to have
a deeper understanding of issues of homelessness
and how people become homeless.
I also did my final year dissertation
on people who beg in Bradford
and did some research there which I found very interesting.
I’m motivated by my love for God,
I’m a Christian
and that influences my values
and the Bible is quite clear on,
that we need to help those who can’t help themselves
and that has inspired me
to start Hope Housing
and it underpins the work that we do.
Helping homeless people
is not always easy or straightforward.
I like to remember
when I’m faced with an impossible situation,
all of the previous impossible situations
I’ve had in the past and how somehow,
out of seemingly nowhere,
we’ve been able to help them,
even though at first it seemed like
we would never be able to help them off the streets.
So those stories inspire me to keep going
even when people are facing
really really difficult circumstances.