Giving the Homeless a HEAD Start

Mission Partner, Leatherhead Start (LS) was established in 1977 by the Leatherhead Council of Churches.  The team work hard to provide emergency short-term accommodation for homeless men and women in the Mole Valley area.

Victoria, Client Services Coordinator for LeatherHEAD START, with a client who is moving on to independent accommodation.

During the past year to April, the charity have housed and supported 42 men and women who found themselves homeless in Mole Valley. Those who moved on stayed an average of 5 months and transferred to longer term Supported accommodation and some to their own tenancies.

Tony was one such client: A life in care, working first in the mines and quarries, then in the army as an engineer and on to professionally skilled work abroad. He came to LS two years ago, aged 74, with painful arthritis and stayed the best part of a year. With support he navigated the obstacles on the path to a flat of his own, where the charity continued to support him and where he died peacefully earlier this year. The staff team gathered with his friends, on the riverbank where he loved to fish, to mark his life and his passing and scatter his ashes while the swans looked on and a robin sang above.   

NB: The government have just announced that Rushanara Ali MP has been appointed as the Minister with responsibility for homelessness and rough sleeping and the Housing Secretary, Angela Rayner, will lead a new cross-government taskforce to reduce “shameful record levels” of homelessness. We hope this fresh team has a swift impact in reducing the numbers and increasing support.