stella40
Posts: 417
Joined: 1/11/2006
From: London, UK
Status: offline
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How important to you is your home? How much space do you feel you need to live in? Are there any restrictions on how you live, or even on your movements?
Let's see how this compares with life in a hostel.
Normally if a person who has been sleeping on the streets is considered vulnerable they are moved into temporary accomodation- which is either a bed and breakfast hotel, or in some areas a room in a hostel.
So what can it be like living in a hostel? I will take as an example a hostel run by a leading charity for the homeless in East London. This is a charity which in 2005 bought a 200 room five storey hostel from another charity organisation for £4 million. In 2006 this charity did well in Government funding cutbacks to homeless charities, receiving a £10 million grant from the Government to renovate the hostel to become the 'showcase for getting the homeless back into the community'.
Plans for the new 'flagship hostel', include reduction of capacity from 200 rooms down to 60 larger rooms with en-suite bathroom, with the top two floors comprising of 15 self-contained studio apartments, there will be an IT suite, offices, rented office space, a health centre, and a meeting room.
Throughout 2006 the hostel needed to reduce it's number of residents from 137 down to 60 residents, and this was achieved in the following way:
- 12 were resettled into permanent accomodation
- 11 were moved to other hostel accomodation
- 38 were evicted for disciplinary offences back onto the street
- 5 were arrested and taken into custody
- 4 committed suicide
- 3 disappeared without trace or explanation
- 3 were committed to inpatient psychiatric care
- 1 left the country
In October 2006 these 60 residents were moved to temporary hotel accomodation for the 18 months whilst the hostel is being renovated. This hotel is shared by residents from another London borough's HPU (Homeless Persons Unit).
If you are a vulnerable homeless person you are housed in this accomodation until you receive a nomination for a local authority flat as part of a quota. This quota is a number of flats the local authority decides to make available each year to anyone living in temporary accomodation and is usually no more than 25-50 flats per year. Of this, if the hostel is lucky, 3-5 flats may be allocated to residents. Or you may choose to go via the London Clearing House and be given one offer of a flat in any London borough, but on the understanding that if you refuse you start your waiting again right from the first day. One couple have been waiting 15 years for an offer of a flat, another man has been waiting 11 years, but the average is 3-4 years, although in the case of asylum seekers this may be as long as 5 years.
In this hostel (or hotel) you are allocated a room measuring five feet by twelve feet, containing a bed, a wardrobe, a fridge and a sink. If you are on benefits this room costs the Government (on your behalf) £186.24 per week plus a service charge of £3.66 a week (which you pay yourself). If you decide to work the room will cost you £256.24 plus the service charge of £3.66 weekly.
You share a bathroom with 6 other residents and a kitchen with 12 other residents. There are CCTV cameras throughout the hotel. Breakfast is not provided, in fact no meals are provided. This hotel is decorated with white paint throughout, teak panelling, and on first impression seems a nice place to live. There are no laundry facilities, no storage facilities. Also the plumbing is faulty so heating and hot water is usually not available between 6am and midnight, and many areas of the hotel are infested with cockroaches, mice and in one part of the hotel, rats. Residents have complained to the local authorities Environmental Health Department but the situation has not changed.
There are also rules which the resident must abide by. There is a 12 midnight to 8am curfew. If you are found not to be occupying your 'bedspace' at night without permission you are evicted. No alcohol or 'substances' allowed anywhere in the building at any time for whatever reason. No smoking anywhere inside the building other than your room. No visitors or guests permitted at any time for whatever reason. Outside the fridge you are not allowed to keep any food in your room.You are not allowed to play music or make any other noise which may be heard outside your room. Your room may be checked and inspected at any time during random room checks which may take place on Mondays, Wednesdays or Fridays, and you must admit staff to your room without any delay.
There is technically an IT suite where in theory you are allowed restricted, monitored access to the Internet (for the purposes of checking e-mails and looking for work) and there are 5 laptops available for use by residents. However in practice staff don't make these laptops available to residents in case they might be stolen.
In fairness this is a particularly strict regime, but many hostels have similar regimes and I have been informed by a couple of residents that 'prison was far more relaxed and comfortable'.
Your comments please.
_____________________________
I try to take one day at a time, but several days come and attack me at once. (Jennifer Unlimited)
If you can't be a good example then you'll just have to be a horrible warning.
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Ever wanted to know what it's like in a hostel? - 
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