Homeless Direct is a charity born to reduce homelessness across the UK on person by person basis starting in West London.   The aim is to help homeless people not only find a stable place to live but to improve their lives by helping them achieve their dreams and goals that they thought maybe lost.   We will do this through empowerment and reminding everyone in society of their worth as people with skills, ambitions and purpose.  

 

Homesless direct is built through the experiences of myself,  Phillip Harmer, I experienced all aspects of being homeless and the many experiences of those who I met during these dark times   I came from a working background of over 25 years until 5 years ago I became homeless for the  for the first time.  Over the next 5 years I sofa surfed ,slept rough and stayed in many hostels some good and some bad  and I am still on my journey as I right this. 

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The time when I realised I could help others but also in doing so help myself was 3 years ago when i bumped into a young person  begging who had once shown me kindness.   I felt compelled  to try to understand what like myself had taken them down this path and to try to help even though I was still not in the best position myself and living in a Hostel.  We spoke and I was shocked to find out they had not applied for benefits, not applied for housing due to her concerns over the ability to fill out the forms correctly and not have a bank account to apply and other fears that held them back.       I felt driven to help and meet them the next day where I filled out all the forms for housing and benefits and gave my card details to allow payments to be processed ASAP into my account whilst we worked together to tackle that problem.   Although that person is still on their journey, they have somewhere safe to live, receive the correct benefits for their joblessness and mental health status and have their own bank account.    All this took was taking the time to sit down next to them , reach out, listen and help directly.  In return I have a good and grateful friend and a feeling of worth that has and still inspires me today.   I am proud to say that I intend to use this person's invaluable experience to help me help others in Homeless Direct by making them a founding trustee.  

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I had a vision and saw the way to genuinely help and reduce homelessness across and Homesless direct was born in my heart and mind.  

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I saw that these people who are frowned upon by parts of society have tremendous courage, knowledge, skills and life experiences that are of great value and like myself just needed to be given the chance or vision to make use of these.  

I saw beyond just the person asking for spare change and saw that these people carry a talent to be able to bear their soul on a day to day basis speaking to members of the public face to face in a way most professionals and even sales people would find intimidating.  I saw and felt through my own experience that these people have great courage and a skills waiting to be applied once given the opportunity.  

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I shared my vision with other homeless people and it became clear that they would be more than willing to help in the fight for change. 

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That change is a charity that works with the same people who it helps by giving employment, fiances and support directly to the people who needed it cutting out the red tape and bureaucracy that covers the many million pound plus charities across the UK.   

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It starts by not just giving these people a number to call but to seek out, sit down person by person and talk to these people to offer them genuinely employment and the chance to make a difference.  I could  share my experiences and show the experiences to offer the change through working with Homesless direct. 

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Our goal is to only employ 90% homeless people and outside of this work understand each person dreams they felt were once lost whether that be running a hair salon or another innovative idea and to work with them to make this a reality whilst providing employment, money helping with housing and encouraging them to do the same with others.  This is Homeless Direct and this is just the beginning  ​

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