Homelessness within ex-Armed Forces Personnel - Riverside

Support services
Numerous charities and initiatives have
been developed to provide aid to Armed
Forces Personnel.
A search on the Charity Commission website
using the search term ‘Armed Forces’ brings
up 107 charities. Many of these charities may
be focused on the provision of aid to single
ex-Service Personnel who are finding the return
to civilian life challenging. It is difficult to derive
exact numbers of charities with this focus as
there is no affiliation linking these services.
In addition to Riverside ECHG there are a
number of well-established organisations that
support ex-Services Personnel at risk of
homelessness and social exclusion. The Sir
Oswald Stoll Foundation (SOSF) provides
homes and support within a secure community
for vulnerable and disabled Veterans, including
those who have been homeless. It provides
rehabilitative care, training and back to work
initiatives for individuals to ensure they are
physically and mentally equipped for
independent living. The Foundation has three
main sites in London and works closely with its
partners on the Ex-Service Action Group
(ESAG) in the battle to reduce the number of
homeless veterans. The Foundation’s main site
is on Fulham Road where, along with its
administrative offices, it owns 157
accommodation units. The Foundation also
owns and is the trustee of 56 properties in East
Acton and at the Chiswick War Memorial
Homes, specifically for former homeless
veterans. It also owns or manages properties
on Sir William Powell’s Almshouses, Fulham.
The Help for Heroes charity is an excellent
example of how enthusiastic the general public
are to respond to issues surrounding Service
Personnel and how willing they are to support
charities in this field. This is made apparent
when you consider that even during these
times of austerity Help for Heroes has tripled
its income during the last three years from
£14.6 million in 2008 to more than £45 million
in 2010, furthermore they were recently voted
‘Britain’s most admired charity’ by Third Sector
magazine. Help for Heroes had a key role in
developing Personnel Recovery Centres at
Edinburgh, Catterick, Colchester, Tidworth
and Plymouth. These centres represent a
partnership between the MoD and Help for
Heroes, The Royal British Legion and other
Service charities. The main aim of these
centres is to aid Service Personnel who are
wounded or develop an illness during their
service. Education, training, advice and life skills
are used as tools to equip wounded Service
Personnel for future life both in and out of the
Armed Forces. The centres also act as a ‘one
stop shop’ offering advice and help to those
who have previously left the Armed Forces and
may need support to adapt to civilian life. For
their clients who may be leaving the Forces
and find themselves homeless the Personnel
Recovery Centre at Catterick Garrison has been
working in partnership with SPACES to ensure
that these men and women are able to find
suitable accommodation once they have left
the centre. As the main focus of these centres
is helping Armed Forces Personnel who are
injured or unwell, the support these schemes
offer will not be applicable to many of the
Service leavers who find themselves homeless
but were not classified as injured or developing
an illness during duty.
Veterans Aid exists to help veterans in crisis,
homeless or likely to become homeless. It can
provide direct and immediate help to vulnerable
veterans with hostel accommodation, financial
assistance, meal vouchers, clothing, advice and
advocacy. They have a hostel for the ex-Service
homeless – New Belvedere House in East
London. The hostel offers single room
accommodation and retains a service ethos
which fosters comradeship and mutual respect.
Founded in 1991, Alabare provides dedicated
support for those Service veterans who struggle
to cope after leaving the military. Their
specialist teams give each person practical
and emotional help to deal with the
experiences that they have had, the skills and
ability to rebuild their lives and the support to
regain their independence. They are supporting
veterans of conflict in Afghanistan, the Gulf
Wars, Northern Ireland, Bosnia and the
Falklands. Currently Alabare has homes in
Plymouth, Bristol, Weymouth and are about
to open their fourth home in Gosport.
Haig Homes is the leading UK provider of rental
housing for ex-Service Personnel, although
they do not have any supported, sheltered
residential or nursing homes. It has over 1,300
rental properties – a mix of family sized houses,
maisonettes and flats spread throughout
the UK in 47 different local authorities. The
majority of homes are suitable for families
and only a small number of properties are
available for single occupancy at Bristol,
Haslemere (Hampshire), Morden and Woolwich
(London). Some properties are suitable for the
frail, elderly and people with disabilities.
Combat Stress is the UK’s leading military
charity specialising in the care of veteran’s
mental health. They specialise in supporting
men and women who are suffering from a
psychological condition related to their Service
career. This might be depression, anxiety, a
phobia or PTSD. Combat Stress offers
specialist clinical treatment at three short
stay residential centres in Shropshire, Surrey
and Ayrshire and an expanding community
outreach service delivered by teams of Mental
Health Practitioners, Community Psychiatric
Nurses and Regional Welfare Officers.
In Scotland housing and accommodation for
veterans and their dependants is provided
by a number of independent charitable
organisations, which collaborate to ensure
that the service they offer is coordinated and
straightforward. Properties range from hostel
accommodation for single people to fully
adapted houses for disabled veterans and their
families. Scottish Veterans Housing
Association owns and manages the two main
residences of Whiteford House located on
Edinburgh’s historic Royal Mile and Rosendale
situated in Broughty Ferry, Dundee. Whiteford
House has 82 fully furnished en-suite single
rooms with a 24-hour monitored call system
and 11 self-contained flats.
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