First Base Day Centre: Saving the lives of homeless people

The average life expectancy for a homeless person is 47 years.

The average life expectancy for a homeless person is 47 years; for a homeless woman, it is just 43. Without First Base, many people would be completely destitute. Some might die. It is no exaggeration to say that First Base saves lives through its immediate services and by helping to move off the streets.

Last year, BHT (Brighton Housing Trust) worked with 688 people who were street homeless, and 204 who were 'sofa surfing' when they first came into contact with BHT.

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Through BHT's dedicated services, 6,989 people were helped to leave homelessness or prevented from becoming homeless.

According to Andy Winter, BHT's chief executive, the people who are increasingly turning to it for help are people who are, for the first time, facing the real possibility of using food banks, losing their homes because of redundancy, ill health, relationship breakdown, zero-hour contracts, and so on.

He said: 'Some who are coming to First Base never thought that they would ever need a service for homeless people.

'We are all, increasingly, impacted by homelessness, be it someone we know or the disturbing sight of the ever increasing number of people sleeping in shop doorways in Brighton and Hove.

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'Your support is needed more than ever before because funding is being cut at the very time that need is rising. Please make a generous donation to BHT. Everything you give will be used to keep First Base going.'

You can send a cheque made payable to 'BHT' to 144 London Road, Brighton, BN1 4PH or donate online at: www.justgiving.com/First-Base-Christmas

About First Base

First Base offers a range of services to support people who are sleeping rough -including hot food, showers, clean and warm clothes, as well as help to get off the streets and find a place they can call home.

First Base works in partnership with other agencies to provide a range of services for clients, including dentistry, podiatry, a nurse, and mental health advice and support

Julie's story

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"I had been suffering with mental ill health for a while. I didn't feel in control of my life and, when my boyfriend left me, things really started to go downhill.

"My boyfriend and I had been sharing the rent and I couldn't afford to cover his half as well as my own. I fell into arrears and before long a letter dropped on my doormat. It was a court summons.

"I couldn't deal with it. I buried my head in the sand, until one day the bailiffs arrived and I was forced to leave my flat. I had nowhere to go and so bought myself a tent, which became my home for the next year.

"I couldn't believe I was homeless. It wasn't something that happened to people like me.

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"Someone told me about First Base. When I arrived I was welcomed. I was spoken to like a human being, something I hadn't felt for a while. It's easy to be overlooked when you are homeless; it's like people forget that you are a real person with real feelings and emotions.

"It felt good to have someone to listen to me and slowly my caseworker helped me start to rebuild my life. They helped me to put my CV together and eventually I got a job as a night-worker in a warehouse.

"I was able to keep clean at First Base, which helped me to keep my job really. I still wonder now what my employers would have said if they knew that I was homeless when I started with them.

"Eventually, I managed to get a flat to rent and things have really started to improve. I am working hard with my mental ill health and slowly I am getting stronger.

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"Quite simply, First Base saved my life. Afnd for that I am truly grateful."

Robert's story

"I lost my marriage. I lost my grandkids. I lost my house. I lost my job. I lost my friends.

"It's Catch-22, really. I need to get a job to get the money saved up for the deposit.

"Because I don't have accommodation, I can't get a job. Because I can't get a job, no accommodation.

"It's a lose-lose situation.

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"I've been homeless at Christmas'¦it's my second time now. I was homeless at Christmas in London years ago. It's not nice. But you just seem to get on with it. You get your head down and get on with it. You can't do anything about it.

"You come in here (to First Base) and staff call you by your first name. They actually talk to you. They have got time for you."

Lee's story

"I came home from school one day and my mama had left with all my brothers and sisters - seeing 18 years of violence from my father.

"I remember that day, I literally walked back down with my older brother who was stood outside the house when I got home and who told me what had happened.

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"The only accommodation, for the most part, that I have had over the last 10 years is mainly staying with friends, family, and sofa-surfing. That sort of thing.

"But you can really only do that for so long before you start getting in people's way. It can even get to the point where you start to lose friendships over it.

"It's got to the point that I'd rather sleep on the streets than impose it on people.

"Christmas Day is like any other day. There is a slight difference in the atmosphere on the high street. Christmas Day actually is usually really, really quite. It was last year, anyway."

To help people like Julie, Robert and Lee, visit: www.bht.org.uk

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