Sasha’s* Story - Meeting at the gate.

On the morning of 2nd April, two of the ID Essence Community support team waited at HMP Downview’s gate for a young woman, aged 25, who had just served over 1½ years to be released….

Once she walked out of the gate, she was happy, excited, nervous and apprehensive – ready to start her new life on the other side of the gate.

But with no home to go to!!

HMP Downview is in London and Sasha* is based in Kent, so we started the hour-long drive down to Kent. The first stop was the council. Here we filled out the relevant forms and spoke to the housing department, where we then had to wait for our appointment. The homeless housing department was very busy and we knew we had a few hours to spare so we treated Sasha to a café, where she enjoyed a full English and a proper cup of coffee! Here we were able to discuss her goals, what she wanted to achieve, the help she would need moving forward and most importantly organise her appointments with probation, support groups and the job centre.

Once we had finished our meal, we called Universal Credit to sort out her claim. They booked her an appointment over the phone and informed her of what documents she would need. An appointment for the job centre was not made at the prison due to the uncertainty of where she was to be released. We went back to the council and waited until they were ready for us.

We had a homelessness meeting with one of the housing officers at the council where a lot of information was taken. Questions were asked about her childhood, her time in prison, and about any existing support that she may have. Being an ex-drug user Sasha was really keen to stress that she does not want to go back to her old life now that she is clean,  and did not want to associate herself with people from her past so that she could start afresh and continue on her sober journey that she has worked so hard on getting to and continues to do.

After a long wait at the council, and a meeting the housing officer, we were told the council would not be able to help Sasha. She was advised that if she goes and chooses an area on the streets to sleep, she could call a charity that would be able to come over and provide her with a tent and sleeping bag etc..  The council, however, would not be offering any emergency/temporary accommodation. As Sasha is a foreign national, accessing ID and a birth certificate presented as a massive issue. Having just been released from prison on that very day, we were unable to provide any form of ID to the council, only the documents that she was released with at reception from the prison.

We left the council and using the phone ID Essence provided upon release she was able to contact her Mum who said she would be able to stay temporarily.  This was a massive relief as the harsh reality is, had her Mum not allowed her to stay, she would have been sleeping on the streets - the last thing we would want to happen, especially given her previous drug use. As we were not far from her Mum’s house, we stopped off at Lidl and used the £150 grant that ID Essence provide to do a small shop she could take with her to her Mum’s. It had been 2 long years since she had seen her Mum and the reunion was very special.

We continue to try and gain ID for Sasha. We are in touch with the council and job centre but it has been a struggle due to the lack of ID.

*Sasha’s name has been changed to protect her identity