Jennie, 44 lives with her husband, Mark, 42 in Brixton. Originally from North Carolina in the US, Jennie moved to London in 2007 where she met Mark, and the pair got together in 2009. They originally lived in Islington but moved to Brixton with their cat Polly, as they loved the area, and found a nice house which offered more space for them to entertain friends and family, including relatives from abroad.
Jennie and Mark have been hosting at-risk young people in their home since the beginning of this year. They found out about Depaul UK when a door-to-door fundraiser knocked on their door early one evening and asked for their support. Having worked in fundraising and volunteering herself for many charities over the years before focusing on her career as a piano teacher, Jennie said she wanted to know more about the charity before she committed to supporting them financially, so she looked them up online.
When Jennie researched Depaul UK, she became very interested in all the other ways you could support people at risk of homelessness. As well as donating money, she discovered that she could also become a host for them via Nightstop.
Jennie said:
“I’ve worked in fundraising before and volunteered for charities for many years so I was really interested to discover Nightstop. It’s so solution focused – a practical and tangible way of making a real difference to people in desperate situations – it’s a brilliant service, and like no other.
“Mark and I love to host friends and family, often we’ll entertain around six-seven people at a time but when the party’s over, the house can be very quiet. Most of the time, it’s just us in the house, so with the extra bedrooms and space, it seemed like a no-brainer to share it with a young person who really needs it for the night. Otherwise, they’ll face a night on the street and I can’t bear to think what that could mean for them.
“The people we meet through the service are vulnerable people. They’re usually teenagers or in their early 20s and often arrive exhausted from all the uncertainty and sleepless nights. Most of the people we meet have had no choice but to escape their living situation because of family breakdown, and some are here because they’re seeking asylum as their life was at risk in their home country. Overall, we have hosted a mixture of young men and women, and they usually stay for one or two nights while the charity works tirelessly in the background to find more permanent accommodation for them when they leave us.
“Polly, our cat also likes to make friends with the guests that stay with us, in fact, I think the cat thinks she owns the place and not us, she’s a funny thing but she is getting very used to having people come and go. She gets a lot of fuss from most of them and she sometimes helps breaks the ice because many of our guests can be quite shy and quiet when they arrive, and who could blame them. It’s a lot scarier for them turning up to our home feeling tired, uncertain about the future and all too often traumatised from the last several days, than it is for us to host them in our home for the night.
“One of the young men that came to stay told us that he’d just come from a hostel where he had to sleep in a room with 10 other people, and said he’d barely slept because he was so frightened and also felt the need to hold tightly onto to his only belongings through the night.
“Not every young person who arrives wants to chat when they walk through the door. Some prefer to go to their room and catch up on work, or sleep – but we always make sure they know there’s a hot meal downstairs and we encourage them to share dinner with us. One evening we had someone stay with us from Uzbekistan which was interesting, as we’d just had a friend need to head over there for work purposes, so we were able to find out more about the culture, history and its diversity.
“Several months ago, another one of our guests saw that we had a piano. She was around 21 years old and studying at the time. She asked whether she could play something with me as she’d learnt piano as a child. That was a wonderful moment, as I sat and played, she joined in – we played a rendition of My Heart Will Go On, from the soundtrack of the 90’s movie, Titanic.
“I understand that it can be hard for some people to understand all the different ways people can be homeless, there are so many misconceptions. When I speak about being a host, I encourage people to think about a friend’s child, and what they’d do if they didn’t have somewhere to stay. All anyone wants is to feel safe.
“At the beginning of our hosting journey, our friends and family questioned whether we felt ‘safe’, and I still get that question when I tell someone new about volunteering with Nightstop. My answer is always the same, we are not the people at risk of uncertainty here, they are. So if we can help, I think we should.
“My husband and I have always volunteered, but not like this. When we left volunteering roles in the past, we’ve often thought about whether we made a difference. However, being a Nightstop host, it’s so easy to see the physical impact you’ve had as well as the emotional one. I like to think that it gives some of the people we meet hope, and to let them know that there are people who really care.
“Everyone who has walked through our door has been so polite, and charming and I’ve learnt something new each time. With regards to treating the place like their home for the night, I think I’ve had to make the bed once and I rarely need to clean up after people. Dare I say, most of our Nightstop guests leave our place in a tidier state than some of our friends do when they stay over.
“If anyone has the space and is thinking about using it in a valuable way, I’d encourage them to think about becoming a Nightstop host. I can’t think of a better way to help make a real difference to someone’s life and giving them space to breathe. Having young people stay here has taught us all the ways they can so easily fall through the cracks if they don’t have a safety net of home. I often think back to all the stupid things I did in my 20s, but when things got bad, I could always go home. But there are so many who have been in the care system through no fault of their own or forced out of their own homes and country with no network. No one chooses to be homeless, so it’s good to be able to help in some small way.
“We don’t keep in touch with our guests, it’s not allowed – but that doesn’t stop me wondering where some of them are.
“Every so often you’ll meet a person and know this one night of safety could be the start of the rest of their lives and to have played a really tiny part in their new, and more hopeful journey, is an honour and a privilege.”