Page 14 - OCF Oxfordshire Uncovered

“Generally speaking around 75% of our clients at O’Hanlon House have a substance misuse problem (drugs, alcohol or both), and around 60% have a diagnosed mental health problem. Plus a high proportion have physical health, debt or offending problems.”
Lesley Dewhurst, former CEO, Oxford Homeless Pathways
COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS
Oxford Homeless Pathways (OxHop)
OxHoP provides a range of services for homeless people, including two shelters in Oxford, O’Hanlon House and Julian Housing. Their homeless medical fund helps people access vital health and welfare.
Crucially, OxHoP also looks at long-term solutions to homelessness, helping people tackle the issues that have led them to become homeless, and to build con dence, develop new skills and put in place plans to change their lives. They proactively convene the other homeless services in the city to try and provide a holistic service to people who have reached rock bottom. For the adults they support, the service is not a statutory responsibility – so without charities such as OxHoP, they would have nowhere else to turn.
Since 2012, OCF has awarded over £32,000 in grants to OxHoP to support its vital work with homeless people.
Homeless people are 13 times more likely to be a victim of violence
Oxfordshire Uncovered
Although mental health issues and substance misuse may be causes of homelessness for some, it is probable that the strains of being homeless mean that they are also its effects – coping mechanisms and normal human responses to great distress. Each homeless person is an individual, and will have their
own stories of how they became homeless and of how it has affected them.
The homeless are vulnerable. Thames Valley Police report nding houses in Oxfordshire in which many people, often from ethnic minorities, are living in the same room. These people are often being exploited, frequently in connection with criminal activity, in what can only be described as modern day slavery.
That anybody should be living in these circumstances, especially in a county as wealthy as Oxfordshire, is unacceptable. With the reduction in state funding, together with the lack of affordable housing and the forthcoming changes in the availability of Local Housing Allowance, it is likely that homelessness and its consequences will continue to grow in the near future.
12