List of national and local organisations working with homeless people

Here are some of the organisations who work with homeless people in Leeds.

The Big Issue

The Big Issue was founded in 1991 by A. John Bird and Gordon Roddick as a response to the huge numbers sleeping rough in London. The inspiration for the magazine came from Street News, a newspaper sold by homeless people in New York, which Gordon Roddick of The Body Shop saw on a tour of the States. With the assistance of The Body Shop International, Roddick and A. John Bird launched The Big Issue in September 1991, initially a monthly publication in London.

In June 1993, The Big Issue went weekly and regional editions of the magazine were soon established in Scotland, Wales, the North of England and the South West. Collectively the 5 regional editions cover the whole of the UK. Today The Big Issue is an international entity, existing in Australia, Japan, South Africa, Namibia and Kenya.

The Big Issue is a founder member of the INSP, which is a global association of 57 street papers with members from all over the world. INSP is an umbrella organisation which provides a consultancy service for its partner papers, advises on the setting up of new street papers and support for marginalised people.

THE BIG FOUNDATION was founded in 1995 to complement the way the magazine works with homeless people and assist them in gaining control of their lives and achieving greater self-reliance and independence. The Big Issue Foundation's core ethos is self-help and offers support to homeless and socially excluded people who seek to gain control of their lives and help them move off the streets and into a home and a job.

The Big Issue is a business. But it is a different kind of business, a social business, which provides a 'business solution to a social problem'.

Homeless people register to become vendors and sell The Big Issue: they sign a CODE OF CONDUCT and agree certain ways of behaving while they sell the magazine, then they are given 10 free magazines to start them off. After that they only get what they can pay for, and managing money becomes an important issue. The Big Issue also runs a bank to help vendors put money by. The philosophy is to give people 'a hand up, not a hand out', and provide them with a way to earn a legal living and get their lives back together that requires input and hard work from them. The Big Issue believes that solving the problem of homelessness is about helping people to help themselves.

Although The Big Issue works as a business their aim is not to make money for its own sake and they exist to help vendors - any post investment profits the Company generates are invested into the charity wing, THE BIG ISSUE FOUNDATION.

The Big Issue Foundation is in the midst of developing some exciting new ways in which to work and further make inroads into moving vendors and the homeless back into mainstream society. The Foundation sees financial inclusion as one of the core principles in achieving this aim.

Selling a magazine is a social transaction and the vendor savings account – operating much like a bank savings account - is a practical context for financial literacy learning. Selling the magazine contributes to building skills and self-esteem as well as raising income for the individual. However, The Big Issue is keen that the magazine offers individuals an opportunity to re-engage with mainstream society. Lack of financial literacy skills is a missing piece in their self-help jigsaw. The Big Issue Foundation will be developing an explicit financial literacy programme that builds on these strong foundations.

Shelter

Shelter helps more than 170,000 people a year fight for their rights, get back on their feet, and find and keep a home. Shelter's vision isn't simply that everyone should have a roof over their heads, but that everyone should have a home.
You don't have to be sleeping on the streets to be classed as homeless. You might also be legally homeless if you are:

temporarily staying with friends or family
staying in a hostel or bed and breakfast
living in very overcrowded conditions
at risk of violence or abuse in your home
living in poor conditions that affect your health
living somewhere that you have no legal right to stay in (e.g.. a squat)
living somewhere that you can't afford to pay for without depriving yourself of basic essentials
forced to live apart from your family, or someone you would normally live with, because your accommodation isn't suitable.

Shelter has more than 30 years' experience in dealing with housing problems. Shelter may be able to help people who are:

facing eviction
struggling with arrears
homeless or about to lose your home
living in bad conditions
having problems with your landlord or mortgage lender
having trouble dealing with the council.

Teen Challenge

Teen Challenge is one of the foremost Christian organisations in the UK offering positive help to young people trapped by addictions and other life controlling problems.

Over the last 25 years it has worked with thousands of hurting people and has helped many of them to find freedom, faith and hope for their future. Teen Challenge UK has proved that it does have an answer to the present drug epidemic that is destroying so many young lives and families.
www.teenchallenge.co.uk

St George's Crypt

St George's Crypt has provided continuous care and support for thousands for over 77 years. The work of St George's Crypt has changed and diversified over the years, particularly since the major conversion of the Crypt completed in 1999. Today, the emphasis continues to be on the Night Centre. However the development of initiatives with asylum seekers and refugees and the skills training work are both areas of appreciable importance.

Overnight provision
Open 9pm – 8.30 am daily
Referrals from St George's Crypt Night Centre
Provides accommodation for a maximum of 14 people
Open to rough sleepers meeting set criteria

Faith Lodge
This provides an alcohol free 'dry' supported accommodation for eight men. Residents have their own bedrooms and share communal facilities such as a television lounge, games room and dining room. Full board is provided including a hot cooked meal three times a day.

Simon On The Streets

Formerly known as the Leeds Simon Community, Simon on The Streets is a small group of volunteers and outreach support workers that provides emotional and practical support to people who are homeless and living on the streets. We are committed to working with rough sleepers and especially with those who cannot or will not access existing provision.

We undertake daily outreach work, a weekly soup-run and regular prison/hospital visits. We operate a blanket store, provide resettlement and tenancy support and conduct independent headcounts to monitor the extent of rough-sleeping in Leeds.

The charity works with clients who often experience exclusion because of problems with addiction or mental illness (e.g. 80% have been banned from hostel accommodation). We focus on those who have been excluded from other agencies; a recent survey found that 53% of our clients were not in contact with any other homeless agency. We also find that many of our clients have ended up sleeping rough after being discharged from short prison sentences, then re-offending, and we are developing ways of providing support to them while they serve their sentences.

Telephone: 0113 2438550
Email: admin@simononthestreets.co.uk

Michele Goulding, 16/04/2010