This week is Homelessness Sunday at St Martin’s. It’s incredibly important to us that we bring this issue into focus as much as we can. You may have noticed, homelessness is growing. St Martin’s has been at the heart of responding to homelessness for over 100 years. We are in the most concentrated area of rough sleeping in the UK. That’s why The Connection is here, on site. Overcoming homelessness is sometimes as relatively straightforward as getting the cash to put down a deposit for a new home. However, the issues we see in central London are usually considerably more complex and can take a lot of time to resolve.

Many people who sleep rough around St Martin’s have experienced a long history of abuse and failure of every safety net we might have hoped would catch them. When you feel so let down, it’s really hard to trust anyone again. Our approach to tackling rough sleeping has, at its heart, the understanding that people need to trust again. We do this initially through small things like hot drinks, tea, a shower, a place to charge up a phone.

Over time we build up this trust in others through honest, thoughtful and respectful relationships between our staff team and people experiencing rough sleeping around us. Many of the people who come to us for help have mental health problems, addiction issues and a complete lack of hope for the future. The housing shortage affects many people across the country and it is an acute issue for our clients.

Our centre at Adelaide Street is there to minimise the harm caused by rough sleeping, build relationships of trust and prepare people to move into a home of their own over time. Most recently, we have been developing a new range of accommodation options. We are also about to break ground on our long planned extension to St Martin’s House.

Homelessness is a tough social issue but we are determined to do something about it. Find out more after the service where the CEO of The Connection will be presenting information about our work to build relationships of trust and support people into a place to call home.

Pam Orchard, CEO, The Connection