Causes of homelessness
“If it wasn’t for those two I don’t know what would have happened to me. They even walked me to my housing interview, I’d never have made it without them.”
A former St Petrock’s client
Increasingly, people are becoming homeless due to the rising cost of living and are unable to pay their rent or mortgages.
However, homelessness is often as a result of traumatic events in childhood, as well as complicated medical issues, sometimes caused by many years of rough sleeping.
Sadly, for many people, homelessness may be accompanied by mental health issues, drug and/or alcohol problems. Drugs and alcohol can become a tool to block distressing thoughts.
Our work tackles not only the issues of homelessness but also the accompanying factors, such as anti-social behaviour and wider social inclusion issues.
Every year we serve thousands of meals and support hundreds of people with our drop-in services as well as helping them into secure accommodation.
In order to achieve the best outcomes for our clients, partnership working is vital. We work with a range of partners and organisations to ensure that our clients are able to access appropriate support to progress to the next stage of their lives without unnecessary difficulties.
The total cost of running these services runs at around £700,000 a year and over 90 per cent of our funding is spent on providing services which directly support our clients. As a local charity, we are incredibly grateful to our local community, which provides almost three quarters of our income.
