When Laura Burns was asked to leave the flat as his landlord was selling, he came to know that he did not have enough money to move.
The cost of energy debt and removal meant that he needed hundreds of pounds to get a new flat.
Facing the trapped and eviction, mother-one-one turned to a donation and asked for £ 600. The money was almost immediately.
Oxfordshire’s 32 -year -old said, “I was so, ‘Oh my goodness’, this is a weight from my mind.” “There are no words to describe that stress behind.”
The Greater Change, the charity who helped Laura, believes to give money to those who are homeless or those who are at risk of losing their properties with some wire can help deal with being homeless. So far this year, it states that charity has paid £ 699,000 to 403 people.
The initiative is small in the scale – the homeless charity shelter estimated that England had more than 350,000 homeless people at the end of last year. But Greater Change says that the scheme has the ability to save money for a long time.
“We are giving the dignity of choice to people,” called Jonathan Tan, the chief executive of the charity. “Very often, in a homeless route, it seems that it is the things you are doing to you and therefore we are giving people the ability to make options about their lives.”
Money is paid through a support worker and charity says it listens to all requests for help. It says that people usually spend money on dealing with rent deposits, bills or loans.
The Greater Change, which was formed by two university friends in 2018, has been funded from donations, philanthropists, grants bodies and councils. It says that its approach prevents taxpayers from becoming thousands of pound tens of people from being homeless and hence needs support from its local authority.
“We are happy to provide anything under the Sun until it aligns with the individual’s ambitions and helps them take the next big steps out of being homeless,” Sri Tan says. Charity says that 86% of people have supported that it has shifted to stable housing, which has about half a job.
But one worry is that homeless people can spend money on feeding addictions.
Asked that the charity ensures that the money he gives is not spent on drugs and alcohol, Mr. Tan says: “The first and most important thing to say is that the international evidence is that people make very good options.”
He says that about half of the supported people were able to get jobs.
One of the studies he pointed to is a new leaf project, in Vancouver, Canada. It gave 50 people who were homeless around £ 4,000 (CAD $ 7,500) instead of each support worker. It also monitored another 65 homeless people, which they did not help. A follow-up study Showed that after a year, people who had received money spent less days without any house. There was also no evidence that he had spent on things like drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
A small scale project in the UK has shown similar results. The individual grant project, including 81 people led by London-based St. Martin-in-Feels Charity, who is working with organizations in Glasgow, Oxford and Swansi, paid direct money to homeless people’s bank accounts.
According to the individual grant “no adverse event between any participant in the project”, Homeless impact centerWho also worked on the plan. They say that people spent money on furniture, books, clothes or just saved it. “No one spent money on drugs, alcohol, or gambling,” the Center says.
They are now recruiting 250 people in Belfast and London, test by researchers from Kings College, London to test a large scale concept with the maintenance of the project.
Greater Change admits that its support is most effective when it is used as an initial intervention – when a sofa surfing, or there is a risk of being homeless – rather to help Rough Rough Rough sleepers, which may require intensive mental health assistance for example. Various campaigns over the years have actively discouraged people from giving money to people on the streets, arguing that money can be misused.
These projects also do not deal with the root cause of the most homeless – there is a widespread acceptance that affordable housing shortage is the key to solving the crisis and the government has committed to the construction of 1.5 meter houses by August 2029. But charity says that such new schemes can be very helpful for some people.
Since receiving her grant, Laura Burns’ life has changed – now she has a new house, a job and is about to get married. The money he received was the right help at the right time. “I know you don’t get much for £ 600 these days. But for me it was a life -saving zodiac. Life is now denda.”
