Beatrice was in prison for nearly 2 and a half years, whilst in prison she lost the council house that she had been living in for 19 years and all of her possessions.  During preparations for her release, she was told she wouldn’t meet the criteria for a hostel place, in part due to being a recovering addict and in part due to location issues - but also because she was autistic.  She was advised to go to her local council on her release date which she did, however the council stated that they weren’t obliged to house her leaving her with nowhere to go. 

Beatrice was a member of a church and it was the pastor, his wife and the church family who stepped up and organised a rota to enable Beatrice to spend the next 5 and a half months sofa surfing in as safe an environment as possible. Whilst this wasn’t ideal it did keep Beatrice off the streets and supported her from lapsing back in to using behaviour.  After this she moved in to shared housing for the next 17 months that was supposed to be supported housing, but there was no support worker.  The house was unclean and Beatrice was sharing with a group of men, who were drug addicts and alcoholics, some of whom were violent.  Beatrice’s Mental health deteriorated whilst living in this environment to the point that she would barricade herself in her room with a bucket as a toilet. Each morning she would leave her room at 5am before anyone else was awake, she would empty her bucket and get 2 bowls of fresh water, 1 for bathing and 1 for washing up, which would last her the whole day.

Beatrice registered with 32 estate agents in an attempt to find alternative accommodation, in early 2021 she was lucky enough to secure a studio flat.  Her church family were able to support her and raised the deposit, financially assisting her to secure the accommodation within 7 days.

Nearly 2 years after leaving prison Beatrice has finally secured accommodation in which she feels safe, Beatrice was only able to do this with the help of her church and the church family that she has.

At time of release Beatrice had been clean for 3 years, and states that she would probably not have survived one night on the streets.  Beatrice feels that without the support from her church she would almost certainly have ended up back on drugs and drinking and possibly re-offending.  

Beatrice took advantage of all the courses offered whilst she was in prison many of which were through the chaplaincy department, she uses the skills that she learnt on these courses on a daily basis. 

*Not her real name*