Shona, one of our frontline senior support workers, recently spoke at a Workshop run by the North East Combined Authority (NECA) about the ways in which supported housing and trauma-informed services can best support people on their journeys out of homelessness. Including overcoming perhaps one of the biggest challenges; trying to find work when homeless.
“Over the years, I’ve worked across our Basis Beds service, to our temporary emergency hostel accommodations, one of our homeless drop-ins, and my first role with Oasis Community Housing focused on supporting those furthest from work into employment. I’ve built a deep understanding of the challenges people face when trying to move forward, especially regarding finding work while living in supported housing.
Trying to find work in that context is not just difficult, it’s often disheartening.
On the surface, it may look like a simple process: apply, interview, start a job. But the reality is shaped by barriers that are invisible to most yet deeply felt by those living through them.
People arrive at supported accommodation often having been rough sleeping with a range of complex needs and varying individual experiences like long-term trauma, offending history, struggles with addiction, lacking support, and complex mental health needs or physical health needs. These people desperately need someone to provide them hope for their future.
Supported housing provides safety and a chance to rebuild. But it also comes with stigma.
Employers often do not understand what supported housing is, and assumptions, often unconscious bias, can close doors before they’re even opened.
Add to that the practical challenges: limited access to internet, no professional clothing, transport, or even a quiet space to prepare for an interview – simple barriers most wouldn’t think twice about.
One man I worked with had secured an interview for a warehouse job. He was excited and ready to turn a corner. But the night before, he couldn’t sleep. The shared accommodation was noisy, police were called for another resident, and he had no quiet space to prepare. He arrived at the interview exhausted and anxious. He didn’t get the job. It wasn’t a lack of motivation; it was a lack of a stable environment.
There’s also emotional weight; many people in supported housing are recovering from trauma, instability, or loss. Rebuilding confidence while facing rejection after rejection is exhausting. It’s not just about finding a job for some people, it’s about believing you’re worthy of one.
Another woman I supported had fled domestic abuse. She was ready to work again, but every job application triggered anxiety. She worried about questions she couldn’t answer, like gaps in her CV, her current address, her past. What she needed wasn’t just a job; it was someone to walk alongside her, to say, “You are ready. You are enough.”
Perhaps the most frustrating barrier is systemic. In some supported accommodation cases, looking for paid work isn’t even an option.
Housing Benefit regulations can make employment a risk because earning even a modest wage means losing Housing Benefit, therefore losing the housing and support that someone desperately needs, taking them back to square one. It’s a cruel paradox: the desire to move forward can threaten the very foundation that makes progress possible.
Between 2023 and 2024 reports show that in Gateshead, 313 people were made homeless due to domestic abuse, followed by 246 cases where family could no longer accommodate someone, and 255 cases due to the end of private tenancies. These figures highlight not just the scale of homelessness, but the urgency of creating pathways out of it.
Despite this, people in supported housing are determined. They want to work. They want to contribute. They want to be seen for their potential, not just their past, not just their trauma.
Within my team at Oasis Community Housing, we have moved away from a traditional supported accommodation model into a Housing First model, aiming to help people into managing their own tenancies via private landlords or through social housing.
Therefore, individual’s support is not dependant on receiving Housing Benefit and therefore the pathway into employment is easier. With this model in place, people who are supported through Housing First are not placed into a heavily restricted ‘use it or lose it’ type hostel but are able to build peaceful homes of their own choosing.
So, if we truly want to support people out of homelessness, we must do more than offer shelter. We must dismantle the barriers that keep people stuck. That means challenging stigma, redesigning policies, and creating pathways to employment that don’t punish ambition.
Because everyone deserves the chance to build a future. And sometimes, all it takes is someone willing to stand beside them and say, ‘I believe you can’.”