People with lived experience of homelessness in Middlesbrough are drawing on what they know first-hand to challenge how local council services work – to help improve support for others in their community.
Hope for Homeless, a lived experience group supported by Depaul UK’s Middlesbrough team, brings together people who are sleeping rough, living in hostels or supported accommodation. With support, members raise concerns directly with the council, examine how people are treated when they ask for help and press for services that better understand their individual needs.
Their work has already secured an important commitment from the council: frontline housing staff will undertake Recovery Allies training. This follows members’ calls for a better understanding of addiction, recovery and the challenges people face when asking for support.
For the group, how someone is treated when they seek help is important. A conversation can have a lasting impact, and members want people approaching housing services to be met with dignity, respect and understanding.
As one member put it: “
Speak to people as individuals. Don’t just assume we’re all the same.
Mystery shopping: how people experience housing services in Middlesbrough
To turn those concerns into practical feedback, the group carried out a mystery shopping exercise to understand what it’s like to approach housing services.
The findings are now being discussed with the council, giving them direct feedback on what people experience when they ask housing services for help and where improvements may be needed.
The next stage will involve people currently sleeping rough and focus on their interactions with housing officers, beyond the reception desk. It will help the group understand more about the support people receive after that first contact and identify further ways to improve services.
Alongside the commitment to Recovery Allies training for housing staff, discussions are underway about extending the training to other frontline services, including Adult Social Care, Environmental Services and Safeguarding.
Accommodation that takes people’s recovery needs into account
Members are also asking accommodation providers to look more closely at the relationship between accommodation and recovery.
They have raised concerns about the difficulties people can face when they enter accommodation while in recovery and find themselves surrounded by active substance use. They want housing and support to reflect where each person is in their recovery journey, with services working together to meet their needs.
One member has developed questions that could help street outreach teams better understand people’s experiences of homelessness. The team is exploring whether these could be added to the questions already asked during outreach.
Members say accommodation alone is not enough. People also need ongoing support, positive relationships and opportunities to build stability.
A chance to question council leaders
The group is now preparing questions for a December meeting with senior leaders from Housing and Adult Social Care. Members will be able to raise concerns, share experiences and ask those responsible about the changes they want to see.
The training commitment is a concrete step forward. The group’s wider work shows why people with lived experience must have a meaningful role in shaping responses to homelessness: they understand the barriers because they have faced them, and they are working to remove them.
With support from Depaul UK, Hope for Homeless members are turning their experience into local action to shape services for themselves and for others who may need support in the future.