Well, it’s been over a year since be church really felt compelled by God to engage with the issue of homelessness. As summer ends and the temperatures drop, the nights draw closer and we’re all a little more aware of our thankfulness of having a warm place to come home to at the end of the day. But not everyone. For many people there is dread, fear and an increased vulnerability as winter for them means, cold shop door steps, busy London streets, an increasing need for food and shelter and not much to look forward to. Thanks to many charities such as Housing Justice there will be winter shelters to bed down for the night. Day shelters to eat, shower and rest in a safe place with people supporting them and helping them get back on their feet and back to a place of sustainability and security. Thank God, literally, for these charities, or more specifically the people who volunteer their time to make sure provision like this is possible – it literally saves lives!
Yesterday Housing Justice held Mentor Training for more volunteers who want to help and support these people as they make the transition back to a ‘normal’ way of life. The M&M project run by pairs volunteers of all ages and backgrounds up with people who have found themselves homeless in the hope that through friendship, encouragement and practical help homeless people can be integrated back into main stream society and into a healthier way of living.
Being made aware of the red tape that faces people when they find themselves homeless was just incredible – no address = no benefits, no benefits = no income, no income = no home, no home = no address and so the cycle continues. Asylum seekers in detention centres and refugees being given little help in finding a new home and access to funds. The picture is pretty bleak. But thanks to the pilot mentoring scheme that ran last year, many are now living happy, fulfilled lives thanks to volunteers giving up just a couple of hour per week.
One story that filled the hearts of everyone there was this: A man in his 60’s sadly lost his wife, and while grieving his loss, found himself without a home too due to his name being emitted from the tenancy agreement. A small detail over looked and the outcomes, devastating. But thanks to Housing Justice and the M&M programme he was housed in sheltered accommodation. His mentor met up with him weekly and helped support him through the move and the grief. As time went on, the man in his 60’s met a women at the shelter who had been his child hood sweet heart and later on married her! The mentor had played such an integral part in this man’s healing and development that he was asked to be best man at the wedding. A happy ending.
At be we want to give our time to befriend and mentor more people like this. We know we are privileged to have homes, job and be part of a community that love and care for each other and we don’t want to keep that to ourselves. Thanks to Housing Justice we can now be part of the M&M programme and mentor others. We want to see His Kingdom come!
Interested in being involved in the M&M project? Visit the Housing Justice Website @ http://www.housingjustice.org.uk/pages/mentoring-befriending-the-mm-project.html
