In Manchester, we work exclusively with UTA residents living in B&Bs, hostels and houses of multiple occupation (houses rented by at least 3 people who are not from the same household, for example a family).
We offer drop-in appointments at our centre in Openshaw, where people can access housing and benefits advice, support with troubleshooting tenancy issues, and referrals to skills-building activities. Residents can also access our support at their door steps during our weekly outreach sessions to unsupported temporary accommodation (UTA) across Manchester.
At times, we use community centres such as Brunswick Parish Church and Levenshulme Inspire Community Centre to run ‘pop-up Justlife drop-ins’ closer to UTA properties. This saves people from having to travel to Openshaw, and enables them to meet with Justlife staff in local centres which they are more familiar with.
Our on-site group activities programme has paused due to covid restrictions and the small size and poor layout of our drop-in space. We are actively and urgently fundraising in order to implement some re-development plans which will overcome these issues.
People in need of ongoing support are assigned two main key workers who’ll work with them to identify the areas that need addressing and come up with an action plan.
This could involve:
Once a new home has been secured, we help them move in and find furniture and essential appliances, continuing to support them as they settle in.
Everything we do is centred around giving residents of Unsupported Temporary Accommodation the best possible chance of moving away from homelessness. We adopt a Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) approach to ensure that our services recognise the impact of trauma on the people we work with, and to prevent them from feeling re-traumatised while accessing our support.
Our work falls into four main areas to facilitate their transition into a stable home:
In 2020, Justlife’s centre has supported a total of 106 people through a range of vital services including one-to-one support, mentoring, workshops and referrals.
Over 860 housing actions have been taken on behalf different clients, including help with bidding on properties, moving in, and furnishing accommodation.
