SPEAR charity working hard to house the homeless during coronavirus crisis

Local homeless charity, SPEAR is working harder than ever to house rough sleepers in Richmond, Merton, Sutton, Kingston and Wandsworth to help prevent further spread of the virus.

But social distancing and self-isolation measures are also causing a rise in the number of homeless people as sofa-surfers are turfed out by anxious friends and family.

Heidi Shrimpton, head of fundraising, communications and volunteering at SPEAR told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that rough sleepers are particularly vulnerable.

According to the charity’s Homeless Healthlink Service, 68 per cent of the people they help suffer from chest or respiratory illnesses.

The average age of death for a rough sleeper is just 47 for men and 43 for women.

Heidi dropping off Easter Eggs

“Some of the rough sleepers that we have been housing have been in floods of tears and overwhelmed by the quality of the accommodation they have been given after being on the streets,” she said.

“Others are struggling to make the adjustment, and some aren’t ready.

“We have been very touched by people and the response to our charity. But this is going on for a very long time. None of us really know quite how long it will go on for at the moment. We have to keep dealing with this and it’s ongoing.

“The rough sleepers are still coming. We are getting them into emergency accommodation and the next thing we are finding another load of rough sleepers that need accommodating,” she said.

Heidi explains that rough sleepers are at greater risk of catching the virus because they have not got access to washing facilities.

Many have also got mental health issues and are involved in substance misuse, which again means that they are not necessarily as well equipped to follow the recommendations for social distancing.

Vulnerable groups such as women in exploitative relationships, and those coming out of prison or hospital are also difficult to track.

Operations Manager at SPEAR keeping residents safe during Covid 19

“It’s a very uncertain time,” said Heidi.

In the last 10 days since the government asked local authorities to house all of its rough sleepers, SPEAR has accommodated 116 people into hotel rooms, university accommodation, and B&Bs.

Staff are working around the clock to protect themselves and their residents.

“There are a whole range of things we are doing in terms of keeping in touch with them,” said Heidi.

“In terms of the emergency rough sleepers we’re having to provide things like emergency transportation and sourcing items such as bedding, towels, microwaves and mobile phones to make sure they can live in the accommodation and make them habitable. But obviously shopping restrictions make it difficult.

“With all of our residents, and those in emergency accommodation, we are having to address people’s physical and mental health needs. Speaking to GPs, arranging appointments, prescriptions, linking with substance misuse agencies, and trying and reduce harm to them. We are also helping people with Universal Credit and housing applications as well.

“In our hostels, those residents are critically important to us. We’ve got some hostels that are 14-bed, so you can imagine that the restrictions they are having to put in place are very difficult.

“Some of the residents are very anxious and very scared and are self-isolating in their rooms because they are worried about mixing with the other residents because they want to be sure they stay safe. But then some of the residents are finding the restrictions quite difficult to follow and we have to, as a charity, put a number of safety measures in place.

“We have had to provide personal protective equipment, which at times has been quite difficult to store. So we have had to have things like masks, overalls, gloves, sanitiser and cleaning products. We have had to do some deep cleans on some of our projects as well and get in professional cleaning companies.”

Heidi Shrimpton thanking the dons and old ruts rugby club for their donations to one of the hostels

Heidi says that the sudden changes brought about by the virus have put some strain on the charity.

“We are a charity that has a lot of volunteering support and a lot of community support from local companies, schools, faith groups etc. We have seen a risk to our fundraising income because of the fact that everything has had to shut down, and rightly so,” she said.

“There is going to be a significant drop in our income over the next six months. We are potentially looking at around about at least £60,000 of our income that comes through our community network, from bakes and runs, disappearing. We have also had to make some changes to our volunteering.

“We have been overwhelmed by the spirit of volunteering from the local community. We have had a huge amount of local businesses and local people who have given our charity food and emergency supplies, even today we have been speaking to a company which has had to shut down and has given us lots of Easter eggs for the weekend, which is lovely.”

Now the charity is asking local people to consider donating to SPEAR’s Covid-19 Crowd Funding Appeal to help it continue supporting the most vulnerable residents.

Heidi explains that it may take a few attempts to help people off the streets, as rough sleepers have often had a lot of setbacks in their life and are anxious about taking the next step.

“While it might seem to us the obvious thing to do, for many they are used to living their life as they live it,” she said.

“Often our team will find themselves going back to the same rough sleeper a number of times, so it can take quite a few times for a rough sleeper to want to engage. So it’s about trust and building up a relationship, but it can take months, more than months, because that person needs to come to that decision themselves.

“Obviously this is a different time during COVID-19 and we don’t know what steps the government might take with rough sleepers who won’t engage at this stage. Usually we can only encourage them to engage when they are ready, they need a lot of emotional support and trust.”

To donate visit their appeal page here.

To find out more about SPEAR visit their website