HOUSING FIRST STORY
“THE STREETS MADE ME LOSE MY IDENTITY. I HAD NO SELF-WORTH AND WAS AN EMPTY PERSON. “PRISON SEEMS A MI LL ION MI LES AWAY FROM MY L IFE NOW. ”
THE LIFE-CHANGING IMPACT
Sarah* was leading a normal life when her home was invaded at gunpoint while her daughter slept upstairs. This terrifying experience initiated a spiral of events which led to Sarah spending 14 years in a cycle between prison, homeless hostel accommodation and rough sleeping. Sarah experienced trauma, was separated from her daughter, and was a victim of assault on numerous occasions; she developed destructive coping mechanisms, including substance misuse, which led to the deterioration of her mental health.
Opportunity Nottingham began working with Sarah in 2014 and she would often express an unbearable need for ‘a nest to rest in’. She would continually ask her worker for a home to clean and to cook in – somewhere for her family to visit her; however Sarah’s increasingly complex, violent and challenging behaviour created significant barriers to securing and maintaining mainstream accommodation. Things changed in 2019 when Sarah settled in a ‘Housing First’ property provided through Opportunity Nottingham.
Housed in her ‘nest’, and with Housing First’s intensive support, Sarah began to rebuild positive connections with her family – her mum dropped off care packages and her brother helped put together flatpack furniture. Sarah also reconnected with her now adult daughter and began to spend quality time with her. She was helped to build skills to reduce her drug use and become almost completely clean; she returned to activities she once loved, such as swimming and listening to music, all of which supported the improvement in her mental health; and in May 2020 she was signed off from the probation service.
Sarah commented: “The streets made me lose my identity. I had no self-worth and was an empty person. Only drugs made me feel something, so I kept taking them, because I had nothing to live for. “Now I’ve got my own flat my favourite thing is to put music on. It’s given me my identity back and reminded me who I am. I walk down the street now and the police don’t recognise me. Prison seems a million miles away from my life now.” *Name changed to protect her identity.
06 Building Better Futures
Building Better Futures
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