Thames Reach Bondway, last year's winner of the Andy Ludlow award, has suffered acatastrophic fire but, as Jeremy Swain reports, continues to harness the power of homeless people
Thames Reach Bondway’s experiences over the past year since winning the Andy Ludlow Award have mirrored the lives of many of our clients, in that several steps forward can easily be undercut by one major setback.

We won the award, and carried out a successful merger between Thames Reach and Bondway, but last August suffered a fire that gutted our central office.

However, against the odds, we have risen to the challenge and achieved most of the goals we originally set ourselves for the year.

Recent newspaper articles have portrayed homelessness charities as a ‘homelessness industry’, with charges of thousands of charities operating in London for the benefit of relatively few rough sleepers.

We would all agree that agencies must look carefully at their focus in the light of the changing external environment, but the ‘homelessness industry’ argument does not reflect our experiences.

The merger between Thames Reach and Bondway was based on an understanding that, by combining the resources of two organisations sharing a similar ethos, we could avoid duplication and act as a stronger advocate for those most in need.

Thames Reach Bondway is now one of the largest agencies working with homeless people in London, employing more than 280 staff and providing more than 600 bed spaces.

As usual, media interest in homelessness was pronounced in the months leading up to Christmas, and it was heightened by the Rough Sleepers Unit’s announcement that it had met its national target for reducing rough sleeping. This is a reason for cautious celebration, and any organisation that has spent years working on the street can see that numbers have fallen.

Understandably, the public remain sceptical – from their own experience most people realise that there are probably more than 532 rough sleepers in England.

And they are quite right; the figure of 532 is a ‘snapshot’ street count figure, which takes no account of the flow of people on and off the street.

Given the flow of new or returning people to the streets, our contact and assessment teams must help another 18 people off the street to achieve a reduction of one person in a street count.

If only it was simpler, but we are working with people who lead very complex – often chaotic – lives, for whom housing alone is not a solution.

Despite the reduction in rough sleeping, there still remain a significant number of people on the streets.

This group largely comprises damaged, vulnerable rough sleepers with low self-esteem who are reluctant to take up services, and a small group of rough sleepers with lengthy histories of uncontrollable behaviour in hostels, leading to frequent eviction. There is also a group of more able rough sleepers, some dependent on drugs, who are drawn back to the streets by the magnets of begging, handouts and petty crime.

Thames Reach Bondway’s street rescue service, developed during 2001 to replace the Bondway soup run and to support the contact and assessment teams, is geared towards reaching those rough sleepers who are isolated, difficult to engage and often sleeping away from main rough sleepers’ sites.

Thames Reach Bondway manages three RSU-funded tenancy sustainment teams providing services to rehoused rough sleepers in London, helping to remove the obstacles that can lead to a return to the streets.

Along with our supported housing projects, these teams are a key element in preventing rough sleeping. We have found that 95 per cent of the clients referred to our teams have been successful in sustaining their tenancies. Prior to their creation, almost one in four tenancies taken up by former rough sleepers broke down.

We have developed a range of imaginative support schemes, many of which involve our clients in the delivery of services.

The power of homeless people’s experiences should never be under-estimated. These experiences can be marshalled to provide some of the most effective support to those who are currently struggling to turn their lives around.

Our peer education scheme, funded by the Association of London Government and the Sainsbury family’s Ashden Trust, offers a set of workshops to formerly homeless people to help them maintain their tenancies and improve their quality of life.

These are facilitated by other tenants who have a history of homelessness. The trainers have, according to one recipient of the service, the advantage of having built-in ‘bullshit detectors’.

We were delighted to receive the 2001 Andy Ludlow Award for our Farm Project. The scheme gives our residents the opportunity to do a day’s work at Boat House organic farm, in Sussex, and has given them a real boost, increasing their self-esteem and building up skills.

Winning the award has raised the profile of the scheme and increased support for it and an extension is now planned.

The fire last summer meant that in some areas of our operation we had to start from scratch. This would not have been possible without support from agencies within and beyond the homelessness sector. It was an example of a united and caring sector, far from the media portrayal of a sector struggling with family rows and fighting over funding.

Our experience tells us that collaborative work is the only way forward to ensure that homeless people get the best deal.

Jeremy Swain is chief executive of Thames Reach Bondway.