Chippenham homeless charity sees 48 visitors in one afternoon drop-in

WALKING in out of the biting cold, I can’t spot at first glance who among those sitting eating at the tables are the volunteers and who are the guests.

Everyone being equal in there is a principle close to chief executive Lisa Lewis’ heart.

As someone who has both been privately educated and spent time living in a squat, she is the perfect intermediary between the officials and the marginalised. She is equally at home sitting down with a man whose neck is completely obscured by tattoos, as she is informing David Cameron she spends her days cleaning up the Government’s mess.

“Policy makers needed to overhaul the whole [welfare] system, because several people were playing it, fair enough,” she said. “But no one considered how sweeping changes like the bedroom tax would affect people’s mental health.”

It is not the case that more people are seeking help from Doorway since benefit reassessments started in April 2013. Rather that the people in need now have more complex problems taking up more of the charity’s time.

“Needs are increasing in complexity,” said Sue, who has volunteered for Doorway since it began in 2003.

Doorway is finding itself to be a victim of its own success. “As you get better at what you do, you get results and people have higher expectations,” said Lisa. “It snowballs.”

The semi-weekly drop in advice session has not long begun and already she has saved someone with a notice of repossession from getting evicted, by setting up a payment plan with the housing association.

Of the 48 visiting throughout the afternoon, the majority are vulnerably housed.

A few are sleeping rough, many more are sofa surfing. “Those are the invisible ones,” said Sue. “They’re not part of the statistics. They sleep on their friend’s couch until the neighbour snitches on them because they have a single tenancy, then you can end up with two homeless people instead of one.”

How do people in a country with an established welfare state end up without a roof over their heads? “Many reasons,” said Lisa. “You have to apply online for benefits now,” she said. “They may not have anywhere to access the internet, or the ability to fill out an hour long form. Every part of the process is set up to make somebody fail. If you have learning difficulties or mental health issues, you don’t have a chance.”

She added: “More often than not he’ll lose his job and then there’s a relationship breakdown. Once you’ve been kicked out of the marital home, you can sleep on friends’ sofas, but at some point your options run out.”

She said ‘he’, but she tells me there are women in Chippenham prostituting themselves to get a bed for the night. “We are the leafy rural suburbs, but we have exactly the same issues as big cities, it’s just you don’t see them,” she said.

Before Doorway staff are able to start working on these issues, they first have to break through barriers by building levels of trust. Informal music and writing sessions allow the guests to share their emotions through the safety of song and poetry. “It gives them an outlet for something they could never otherwise express,” said Sue. “Some of their experiences are too painful to be talked about baldly in conversation.”

“It may be the only social integration they have in the week, maybe a motivation for getting out of bed,” said Lisa. “When they come in here they are our guests. And for this short period of time they get to feel better about themselves.”

The fact that Doorway has a bank of 50 volunteers to call upon shows the strength of support it has in the community.

“It is also a journey for the volunteers,” said Lisa. “I train them and some change career as a result, into social work or go to college. Some are retired and want to feel useful again. Monitoring them is as important for me as monitoring the guests coming in.”

These volunteers have the daunting task of raising £10,000 a year to keep the charity going.

“We are answering directly to the people giving us money and that keeps me on my toes all the time,” said Lisa. “Because we are not publicly funded, we don’t have to worry about having a funding cut.

“It also means I can stand up and advocate on behalf of our guests without worrying our money will be cut.”

Lisa Lewis, who as a teenager refused to conform with her privileged background and spurned private school to live in a squat, is still fighting the system all these years later.

Now, her fight is allowing others to climb out of the peripheries of society and regain their dignity.

• Doorway drop-ins are held in The Salvation Army Hall, Foghamshire on Monday morning and Thursday afternoon.