Paddy Holt, Resettlement Worker for Passage House, explains the vital function of the project.
We run five of our very own accommodation projects, with each providing specialist support to its residents.
One of these, Passage House, is a rapid-response assessment and resettlement centre based in Pimlico. The facility contains 37 en-suite rooms, providing temporary accommodation for people who have recently begun sleeping on the streets, but have no local connection to Westminster.
The service is managed by The Passage and is dedicated to providing safe, supported housing for brighter futures. The support available to residents at Passage House includes life skills, volunteering and employment opportunities – also wellbeing activities, such as art, poetry and mindfulness sessions.
It is not intended to be accommodation for long-term stays, explains Paddy Holt, who joined Passage House last year as a Resettlement Worker. The idea of the project is for residents to stay for up to 28 days – in which time our staff can work with them to find a sustainable route off the streets – but timescales can be open-ended; after all, says Paddy, the reality is that “even if the work is done, there can be a long wait for accommodation to become available”.
Building trust from the moment someone walks through the door
Fundamentally, he says, the job is about building trust with individuals, a process that begins from the moment a client walks through the doors. “Many of our residents are coming in with quite a defensive and sceptical mentality. So, our job is to break down those barriers to start with. It’s a journey that takes place every day. If you put a foot wrong, that trust can be broken very easily. So, it is about being consistent in terms of presenting the right things.”
There are two chefs on site, and a communal area with a TV where residents can congregate – last summer, the Wimbledon championships became appointment-to-view watching. Every evening, staff and residents mingle over dinner. The connection is essential, says Paddy. “You feel like you are one of the crew.”
“We have a lady that comes in and does poetry, another lady does body realignment, which all the clients seem to confuse as a massage!”
The communal aspect helps erode stubborn and often complex barriers. “There is a sense of safety here,” he says. “A sense of friendship and community – things that when you’re on the streets, you almost block out, to protect yourself. We have lots of clients that come in and are initially cautious with staff, and with other residents. And then, over the weeks they are with us, they engage with us so much more.”
Like so many of the staff and volunteers involved in The Passage’s work, the often-immense challenges are offset by the rewards that come from meeting, working with and supporting people from vastly different walks of life. The job can be intense, he says. It can be hard to leave it at the door at the end of a shift.
But ultimately there is a unifying social aspect to the work; you are doing this for the people. “Before you change the world,” he says, “you’ve got to try and change your hometown, and go from there. And that is society in many ways, isn’t it?”