1. Network East Foyers mother and baby units – Louise Joseph

NEF accommodate 451 young people in total. Their young mothers’ accommodation is within existing foyers and is generally accessed through the assessment centre which identifies those individuals who are engaging with the education and training programme offered by NEF.

Young mothers’ accommodation

• Focus E15 Foyer, Stratford - 16 units
• Redbridge Foyer, Ilford Town Centre - 8 units
• First Step Assessment Centre, Plaistow - 1 unit
• Draper’s City Foyer, Bethnal Green - 14 units

Foyers under development

• Barking & Dagenham - 12 – 16 units

NEF clients are aged 16 – 24, single parents in housing need and in need of support with employment and training. NEF offer life skills and personal development programmes as well as:

• child care provision
• counselling
• career & life planning
• peer mentoring
• work placements
• healthy living initiatives e.g. pilates, aromatherapy and self defence

NEF have launched a number of special programmes for their young mothers. These are also open to members of the local community involved in education and training projects and include a toy library, baby play sessions, tiny talk and baby massage. They have a young mother’s group and parenting craft classes.

Referrals to NEF – clients must have some local connection. The nature of this connection varies from foyer to foyer. There is no preference according to age. Each programme lasts between 18 months and two years. There is no rough sleeping requirement as many young people form part of the hidden homeless figures. They commonly “sofa surf” with friends and are not included in rough sleeping figures.

Drug users and those with mental health issues are not excluded from the programme, but they must be well enough to be able to engage with the training and education programme.

2. Church Army – Margaret Njuguna and Rebecca Johnson

The Marylebone Project assists single homeless women to make the transition from rough sleeping and homelessness to an independent life. The project comprises four units near to Marylebone station which house a total of 104 women. The two residential units have 45 beds each, a third unit provides 14 mental health beds and the fourth is a day centre.

Referrals - come from a variety of backgrounds including social services, and health and probation services. The project has four emergency beds, where clients may stay for three to seven nights before being moved to other parts of the project or referred to another hostel. Accommodation is in single rooms with communal kitchens and bathrooms.

Success - Each resident is assigned a key worker to help her move towards greater independence. Over the past 12 months the emergence beds helped find accommodation for 375 women, the residential units helped to resettle 95 residents back into the community.

Challenges – include the shortage of move-on accommodation, especially for women with low support needs who are not considered a priority. As a consequence women who are ready to move on are de-skilled and become dependent as they wait. They also block beds which could be taken by other women in need.

Young pregnant women are also difficult to re-house as there is a shortage of mother and baby units. In London many of these women end up in bed and breakfast accommodation, which is inappropriate as they are often very vulnerable and are unable to cope without support.

The welfare system presents a problem when residents start work due to the time taken by re-assessing their claim. During this time residents may be asked to pay more for their accommodation than they can afford through their wages.

Refugees and asylum seekers present challenges on several fronts: Once their immigration status has been turned down they cannot claim benefits and thus cannot remain in hostel accommodation. They will instead be housed in temporary accommodation by the National Assistance Service (NAS) in places where they may not be able to orient themselves. Refugee women face additional problems related to language and cultural differences, which may result in isolation. The project undertakes signposting of the UK benefits system and an individual’s rights, as well as helping them to get in touch with their communities.

Rewarding – Satisfaction comes from seeing a hard-to-reach person starting to make informed decisions about her life and beginning to restructure her life. It is also encouraging to see an successful resettlement.

Day centre – This opened in 1996 in the Cosway Street hostel. It provides access to practical services such as food, showers and laundry, as well as running training, education and therapeutic groups and providing advice. The day centre is open from 9.30-3.30pm Monday to Thursday and their mission statement declares it is:

A centre run by women for women in housing need, whether in temporary accommodation, sleeping rough or feeling isolated or unsafe. We aim to provide, besides practical support, a shared community and sense of belonging where women are empowered to make informed choices about heir lives and develop self esteem.

Women of all ages use the day centre. They are homeless in the loosest definition of the word: Women may have their own accommodation but their experience of homelessness and other connected issues continue to prevent them moving on with their lives. They may have drug, alcohol or mental health issues, some women have no immigration status or encounter specific challenges due to their age.

Rebecca went on to illustrate their work in the day centre through several case studies of women they have helped.

3. St Mungos Working women and crack users project – Liz McConnell and Kay Mylrea

The idea for the working women and crack users project came out of a gap in existing provision. Crack houses were being closed down and homeless crack-using working women were displaced and highlighted the lack of available accommodation.

St Mungo’s filled this gap through working in partnership with LCPT and Stockwell Project and developing the Women’s Crack Outreach Service. This service comprises: first stage accommodation provided by St. Mungo’s at Cedars Lodge second stage accommodation also provided by St. Mungo’s at a nearby specialist hostel.

The aims of the initiative were to provide a stable and secure place to live and to address each individual woman’s needs. It aims to help the women start to make positive changes in their lives and to offer consistent support and specialised services.

Referrals – come from a range of agencies and are faxed to a gatekeeper. Referral criteria are:

• homeless and using crack
• involved in prostitution
• have a local connection
• 17 years or over

Referral agencies are Trust, Mainliners, LSMT, Smart, Spires, Safe Space, Stockwell Project, CPD Arrest Referral and Streatham Street Link.

Accommodation at Cedars Road Hostel - 10 beds are available on the first floor working women’s cluster with specific services offered as:

• needle exchange
• Hep A & B vaccinations
• PHC
• sexual health awareness
• substitute prescribing
• referrals to detox and rehab
• learning services

Accommodation at the second stage supported housing project - offers 15 beds in a shared house for residents at a more stable stage who are ready to be moved on from Cedars Road Hostel. This second stage hostel is staffed 24 hours a day and provides a transitional stage between the hostel and SIH. Here intensive life skills and work & learning support and training are provided

Future developments

• dedicated first floor worker at Cedars Road
• more intensive work with the women

4. Eaves Housing’s Lilith Project – Sophie Wadleigh

Lilith is a second-tier organisation, the product of a consortia of eight renowned voluntary agencies in London. Lilith gets agencies to work together to tackle the issues of rape and sexual violence, female genital mutilation and domestic violence.

Lilith is a research and capacity-building organisation. Its current work includes

• building a database of all London agencies dealing with violence against women
• researching prostitution and the proliferation of lap-dancing clubs in London
• running an accredited course helping frontline workers to offer therapeutic support to women they work with
• preventing drug rapes – combating reported increase in the city by training those working in nightlife venues