By Rob Payne, director of homeless services
At HOPE worldwide UK’s Two Step programme, building good relationships with landlords and referral partners is vital — trust allows us to move quickly when people come to us needing urgent help.
One of our key referral partners is Glass Door Homeless Charity, who a run a network of night shelters in west London.
Daniela Ngugi, a Two Step housing support worker, and I joined the Glass Door staff meeting in October — it was great to meet in person and hear how much they value our service.
“We have confidence referring to HOPE worldwide, because we know that they not only have lots of options to help people find housing, but also provide the necessary support to help them to sustain it,” said Boguslaw Szewczyk, co-head of casework, Glass Door Homeless Charity.
For example, one of their team recently referred Florian* to us. He had been sleeping in his van until he lost his job but then had to survive on the streets, desperately trying to find somewhere to live so he could get back to work again.
One of the landlords we had recently started working with was looking for tenants so we could send Florian on a viewing as soon as we met him. We have built a trusting relationship with this landlord, so Florian was given keys the night of the viewing.
We couldn’t help people like Florian without the loyal supporters who fund our services. We also apply for grant funding, which helps increase our staffing and multiply the impact of the funds we receive, so we can expand our work with charity partners like Glass Door.
For example, in November 2023 our Two Step programme was awarded a three-year “Community Impact Grant” from the Benefact Trust, which is being used to expand our work with other charities.
In the first 11 months of 2024, this funding has helped us house an additional 28 people with a further 16 finding housing after receiving our advice. To date, we have housed a total of 141 people in 2024.
After reading our report on the impact of their funding, Jo, a grants officer at the Benefact Trust wrote, “What you do in terms of advocating for tenants and building relationships with landlords is fantastic — I wish it could be replicated everywhere!”
How you can help
Relationships are key to helping people out of homelessness.
With official stats showing that numbers seen rough sleeping are rising, it can feel like you are powerless to help. However, you can be part of someone’s journey out of homelessness by stopping to have a conversation with someone on the streets and giving them hope.
Last year, we made a short film explaining five simple steps that you can take when speaking to someone experiencing homelessness. This film was recently entered into the Smiley Charity Film awards.
To help spread the message of this film, please watch, vote for and share this film using this link.
If you would like to donate to support the work of Two Step, £10 can pay someone’s travel expenses for a viewing — and £30 can provide someone experiencing homelessness with a much-needed night off the streets in a hostel while we work with them to find housing.
Feel free to donate by clicking here, and scroll to the bottom of the page.
*name changed to protect confidentiality
