Arun District Council's Outreach Team on the hard work it takes to tackle homelessness

Residents in Bognor Regis have spoken out about the increasing presence of homelessness in the town centre, bemoaning tents on the seafront and the bandstand, and calling on District Council officers to take action.

The truth, according to homelessness pathways and partnerships coordinator Kristy Bristow, is that Outreach teams take to the streets regularly, offering help, support and guidance to whoever needs it – but there’s a limit to what they can do.

"What we do isn’t about sitting in an office. We take the service to the person in need of it. So, for example, we work with a lot of people who, for a variety of reasons, might not be able to come into an office and speak to a housing options officer - It can feel very official and quite scary. So, we take the service out to them. We might assess their housing needs, assess whether they might need some other kind of help. Whatever they need, we try to navigate these services for them. But there are some people who will not engage with us, no matter what. And that can make things very difficult.”

Roadblocks like that are inevitable, and Kristy admits the team can’t force anyone to accept help, but the team often get ‘creative’ when it comes to making sure council support services are as accessible as possible.

"If we happen to know that a given person is engaging with other services in the area, like the Hubs, we might try to establish a link through that. We try our best to find what works best for the client, rather than inflict the system on them.

"Sometimes, we have SWEP provisions and it’s bitterly cold and you have to beg people to come in – so you have to think about why they might not want to. This is ultimately all very individual. You’re setting someone up to fail if you try to force someone to do something they don’t want to engage with.”

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