Here is an interview of Kim Collier on BBC Hereford & Worcester on 24/09/07 talking of her experiences of SHYPP Foyers. Kim is now at Swansea University - one of the 350+ Foyer residents currently registered on the £1000 Foyer Bursary project. 

Young people from a Herefordshire homeless project gave up their spare time to complete a Changing Rooms-style makeover at a local sheltered housing scheme.

Residents at Woodville House, in Sutton St Nicholas, near Hereford, are now being styled in style after their hairdressing salon was given a striking new look by teenagers Tara Butler and Christian Lane.

Tara and Christian are both residents at the Ross Foyer, run by Herefordshire Supported Housing for Young People Project – SHYPP – which helps young people aged 16 to 25 who are at risk of homelessness, by giving them support to find employment, encouraging training and boosting development skills.

Woodville House, a sheltered housing scheme with 31 flats, is run by Kemble Housing, which forms part of the West Mercia Housing Group along with Herefordshire SHYPP.

“The project to decorate the salon area at Woodville came out of a team day event last October where SHYPP and Kemble Housing staff met to discuss ways they could work together more,” said Rob Breeze, Ross Foyer worker.

“I met up with Jan Hancock, the scheme manager for Woodville, and ended up visiting there and looking at the sort of project where we might be able to help.

“The salon area was a little dated and needed a bit of a revamp so we offered to step in.”

The residents at Woodville chose striking red and green colours and Tara, aged 19, and Christian, aged 17, volunteered to do the painting, Tara giving up her day off from work at a local supermarket to chip in.

She said: “ I really enjoyed the day and learned a lot of new skills. At the end of the day, we had a great sense of achievement and were very proud of what we had done.

“It was great chatting to the residents at Woodville.”

Sam Pratley, Herefordshire SHYPP project manager, said the organisation as a whole wanted to develop closer links between its different projects.

“Projects like this can change perceptions,” he said.

“Older people can see young people as threatening or scary while younger people perhaps do not see older residents as being particularly interesting. We hope with more projects like this we can break down those barriers.”

Herefordshire SHYPP has three supported housing projects – or foyers – in Hereford, Ross and Leominster.

Set up in 2001, its outreach programme sees workers helping young people to find and secure accommodation, as well as supporting young parents. There is also the Nightstop project, which offers emergency overnight accommodation.

To find out more, call 01432 374320, visit www.herefordshireshypp.org or drop in to one of the centres.

Where I want to be is somewhere I can feel safe, not constantly having to watch around me. Somewhere I can just rest and not have to check my things have not gone missing.

The last 11 months for myself has been a marathon. I’ve gone from being homeless to living somewhere I feel secure and have options open to me. Not just housing or bettering where I’ll be living but education. Physically making myself healthy and getting involved with other activities as a group, which is for now what I need for where I want to be. I’ll have to take these opportunities and not waste them so I’m prepared.

I’ve had to look at my housing situation with urgency these last 11 months. I’ve gone from being homeless and I don’t think people realise what being homeless entails. It’s such an easy word to say or to talk about someone else in that situation but to actually experience for such a long length of time is completely different. You could so easily find yourself walking further down the path of self destruction or maintain focus of what you want and be real and go after it.

These situations are how I feel personally; everyone has their own story to tell. Spending 14 days walking around not actually sure of what you’re supposed to be doing, too scared to think too far ahead and realise you have nothing, feeling like everyday the council knock you back or your homeless office can’t remember your name becomes tough and mentally draining. Especially when it’s pitch black at night and getting late you realise you have to put yourself under pressure asking to sleep on a friends’ floor, knowing they have a routine and normal way of life and you’re bringing to their door step everything that is depressing and conversation everyone wants to avoid. Sometimes you have the relief of tip-toeing around making sure you don’t make a nuisance of yourself for the night or you realise there is nowhere and you know you must survive till the morning outside, knowing your appearance will be gash and not actually realising you haven’t eaten as you start to feel dehydrated and can see everywhere around you is shut.

Homeless is such an easy word to say but that is in the past now I’ve maintained focus and for now I am where I want to be. I have my own comfortable thinking space, I feel secure, I can budget my money to buy food I can store away, having my own key and knowing I’m in control of my living space. Where I want to be in the future after my temporary accommodation, being realistic, is in a social property but I’m doing things now. I’m trying to re-educate myself into a routine. I’ve got a lot of options open to me to better myself for when I move on in the future.

So to summarise, I’ve been homeless and don’t want to go back there. I’m happy with my current temporary accommodation and I’m looking forward to future option of longer term accommodation.

Written by John Murphy, resident at SHYPP Ross Foyer