THE youth homelessness charity DePaul UK has described as “heart-warming” the reunion of one of its Nightstop service users with two of its hosts, the Rt Revd Mark Bryant, an assistant bishop in the diocese of Newcastle, and his wife, Elisabeth.
Nightstop places people at risk of homelessness, predominantly young people, into the homes of trained and vetted volunteers living in the community. Volunteers offer their spare room for the night, a hot meal, washing facilities, breakfast, and a packed lunch in the morning.
Yasmina was just weeks away from graduation when she began living in her car outside Newcastle city centre. She received emergency help from DePaul. “I’ll never forget the warmth and safety I felt when I stepped into Mark and Elisabeth’s home,” she said. “It wasn’t just a roof over my head: it was the conversations and encouragement that gave me hope, and reminded me of my worth.”
She describes that time as one of her most vulnerable. Bishop Bryant, who is a trustee of the Oasis Community Trust, and his wife, a nurse practitioner, have welcomed almost 100 people at risk of homelessness into their home over the past decade. Their first experience was hosting asylum-seekers when Bishop Bryant was Archdeacon of Coventry.
He described Yasmina, who is now living in private accommodation and pursuing a Master’s degree, as “an incredible person. All she needed was a chance for someone to believe in her.”
On opening their home to strangers, the Bishop said: “I think it’s a combination of being warm and just helping people to relax and feel at home. My sense is that, on the first night, people are saying, ‘What are the rules?’ And so it’s about helping them to relax, telling them gently what happens. I think that helps to give them some security.”
So does the food: a special first-night dish for his guests is a potato stew with tomatoes, olives, and feta cheese, served with flatbread.
“We’re lucky in our kitchen because they can come and sit there and have a cup of tea with a cake or whatever when I’m cooking, and if they want to talk, it’s a nice space for them to do so. And while I’m cooking we can chat,” he said.
Memorable guests over the ten years have included a young man who suddenly found himself in the north-east. “He was an absolutely lovely young man, but our sense was that he was completely gullible and would have gone with anybody who was nice to him,” Bishop Bryant said. “I was very pleased we could give him a place of safety.”
He remembered, too, an older man whose relationship had fallen apart. “He was so deeply ashamed at this that he walked the streets for three nights, unable to face telling anybody. Eventually, he gave in, and heard about Nightstop and came to us for his first night. It was lovely to be able to give him a warm place of security and gently start to build his self-confidence and self-esteem.”
The Bryants have recently hosted a young Sudanese man who had left Sudan in his mid-teens, travelling to the UK via Libya, Morocco, Tangier, and Italy.
“He had leave to remain, but was homeless, while deeply committed to learning English at the local college,” Bishop Bryant said. “In the middle of eating one night, he had a flashback about something on his journey, which for a few minutes completely overwhelmed him.”
DePaul UK has seen referrals across the Nightstop network rise by 55 per cent in the past year. Nicola Harwood, its director of services, said: “Yasmina’s story is a testament to the resilience of people experiencing homelessness and the life-changing impact of our hosts. But, with demand for Nightstop surging by more than half, we urgently need more people to step forward and help.”
In a reflection for Homelessness Sunday last year, the Bishop suggested that homelessness was not the main issue for many who came to seek help. “Many of those who come are homeless because they have often experienced many traumas in their lives,” he said. “Early life has often been difficult, and that has made it difficult as they grow up to form good and healthy relationships.
“It has meant that life has sometimes become unhelpfully chaotic, and sometimes the pain of just being alive has been so great that the only way to dull the pain is through alcohol or other drugs. Funding or holding down a tenancy has become simply impossible. Circumstances have made it harder for them to glimpse that fullness of life which may have come a little more easily to others, and which is God’s desire for every member of the human family.”
DePaul UK provides initial training and ongoing support to ensure that its volunteer hosts have the skills and confidence to help those facing homelessness. It is, the charity says, “for anyone who can offer a spare room and a listening ear to someone in need”.
Bishop Bryant heard about Nightstop at a Synod fringe meeting about teenage runaways. He “came home, made a phone call, and the rest is history”. Asked what motivates him, he said: “I would say that we have a spare bed, somebody can use it; so it makes sense to offer it.”