While our guests are living with us we work, often with other organisations, to help them find more permanent housing, employment and medical care.
Once someone is invited to stay at George House they will have a detailed assessment, designed to understand more about their circumstances. We do not operate a ‘cookie cutter’ service; homelessness is often complex and there are rarely easy solutions. For some people The Bus Shelter MK is not the right place for them, and in those circumstances we offer advice and referrals to more suitable services.
Care and support are the most important things we offer so, once we establish what challenges the individual has, we prepare a plan with them to enable them to successfully resolve their homelessness – and stay off the streets in the future. We know from our experience that there are usually a number of challenges to be resolved. These might include:
- Financial problems
- Mental health challenges
- Physical health challenges
- Family or relationship breakdowns
- Bereavement
- Loss of employment
Our guests come from a wide variety of backgrounds. We’ve had guests who have previously had good careers: an F1 engineer; a former bank manager, a pub manager, more than one nurse and a paramedic – perhaps not the perception often held about people experiencing homelessness.
Our aim is to work towards resolving any issues, finding each person sustainable work, or setting up the necessary benefits, which will then allow them to move into a sustainable home. It is common at any one time for at least half of our guests to be working.
Nor are large numbers of homeless people addicted to drink and drugs as some people may assume. The Bus Shelter MK is not able to accept people with active addictions – this is not a judgement as we understand addiction is an illness – but as a small local charity we are simply not resourced to handle addiction issues safely.
If you are looking to refer yourself or someone else for help then please visit our ‘Need help?’ page.