SOME OF OUR CLIENT'S STORIES
We arrange and pay for bed and breakfast, one night at a time, for clients who have been referred to us by our voluntary sector partner agencies.
The average length of stay is only two nights, but this gives both client and agency a bit of breathing space and time to seek other solutions. In particularly complex cases, we are able to offer more than two nights.
Here are some of our client's stories, showing how StopGap has helped them.
Tomas
Someone from the council called us to explain there was a male sleeping rough outside the council building. We went to find them and met Tomas. Tomas is Hungarian and came to England in June to try and find work. He originally flew into Manchester but came to Sheffield with the promise of a job. When he got here, there wasn’t any employment for him. He started to rough sleep. He didn’t speak much English so we got him assessed by the council over the phone with a translator. Unfortunately as he had no settled status here, the council could not place him. At this point, Tomas had had enough and wanted to go back home. We explained that we were able to pay for him to fly back, but we needed evidence he had somewhere to stay when he was over there. We placed him in stop gap for around a week. This gave him time to gather his thoughts and get back in touch with family. His family were happy to have him back. We searched for a flight from Manchester, paid for his train ticket to the airport and a flight back home. He stayed in Stop Gap until the morning of his flight. He was really grateful and he is now safely back in Hungary with family.
Paul
Paul came to Sheffield from Loughborough. He turned up at the Cathedral Archer Project in desperate need of a room. He explained that there was a place for him in rehab but not for a few days. Sheffield City Council were unable to place Paul due to his local connection; he had not spent enough time in Sheffield. Framework telephoned the rehabilitation centre, confirmed he had a place and then were able to place Paul in Stop Gap for a few days until this place became available. This enabled Framework to prevent Paul from rough sleeping. After Stop Gap, they helped Paul get to the rehabilitation centre. He was very thankful for his place at Stop Gap.
These are just some of the examples of our client success stories- there are so many other similar cases.