Meet the Monday crew
It's another Monday morning at the Hub. Within 10 minutes of opening, the first 6 regulars arrive. Job number one is providing a plaster and treating a raw and painful foot. After 30 years looking after the health of Dorchester residents, midwife Ita is the ideal person to come to the rescue. She has been a volunteer at the Hub for two and a half years, originally drawn to it by the conviction homeless people are much misunderstood by most members of the public. Her wish for 2008 is that more people will come to recognise the need for on-going support after rehousing, something the Hub offers once the council thinks its job is done. Ita explains, "It isn't straightforward. For some service users, having a flat is more isolating than prison. Some don't even know how to cook for themselves."
Ellen (left), also a nurse, working in DCH stroke unit, continues. "Sometimes people think when a homeless person is given a flat,
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the problem is solved, but in fact that is just the start. Many don't know about paying bills or budgeting. They feel lost and a failure yet again. That's why they drift back to their friends on the street. It's what they know and feel comfortable with. Ellen volunteered after reading an article in her church magazine. Bought up with a strong sense of the need to care by her family in Norway, she was also motivated by the loss of a close friend in her teenage years to a drug overdose. "Everyone deserves another chance in life," she maintains. "We could all end up where these people are."
Mark too (pictured right with Hub manager Bob), was moved to become involved after witnessing the experiences of a friend who was homeless. Also working with Soul Food in Weymouth, he likewise feels that the best outcome for the Hub's service users is to be given another chance. Ideally, 2008 would bring money for a proper hostel where they could have 2-4 weeks to dry out so that they qualify for the dry hostels. Even better, there would be dog kennels. More than one homeless person has refused shelter because it would mean abandoning a faithful friend.
Indeed, Assistant Manager Ann (sitting above with Ellen) has had a four-legged house guest over Christmas and New Year, until his owner can move into accommodation which allows pets.
It might have been easy to overlook Jane, shoe-horned as she was into the centre's galley kitchen with Ita, and soon to be hidden behind clouds of steam. Jane's paid job is as a special needs teacher, but like the other, busy volunteers, she finds time to help Dorchester's vulnerable, many of whom fell through the net at school. She has a particularly painful memory of one young lad who might so nearly have been saved by an outward bound adventure weekend but for one stupid action on a Friday night that led him off to custody despite pleas from Jane and the boy's head teacher. His future was decided that moment - but not the way Jane had hoped.
She and all the other workers are proud though, of what the Hub has achieved so far: something like 20 people supported to new homes this year. The lightest moment came when one service user effused over his wonderful bathroom, the likes of which could obviously not be found in Buck House, but who then went on to add of his flat, "but best of all, it's got a BOW window." Away from the gutter, and a view of the stars no less