A South East Simon milestone
17 August 2024
“Everyone deserves a roof over their head and somewhere to call home. Nobody should be judged. I’d like to see humanity accept people more for who you are and not what you live with.”
Antoinette.
20 years of South East Simon
We’ve reached a milestone. Twenty years of South East Simon Community.
Twenty years of people throughout the South East caring about homelessness, caring about the men and women experiencing homelessness and caring about how their community responds – what it stands for and who it stands up for.
Over the last twenty years you’ve been generously standing with people like Antoinette, who tells us how she was “looked down on” because she was homeless. “It makes you feel worthless. It makes you feel you’re not worthy of life as much as other people would be.”
It’s an experience we hear a lot. People who are homeless feel invisible. On the margins. Present in but not part of their local communities.
So many people here in the South East have joined us over the last twenty years to change that.
“Never had a home”
“We’re a community here”, says Esme, a longstanding member of the Simon team. “For me, the people we’re supporting are at the centre. They’re at the hub. The rest of the wheel really is the Simon team and the people raising or donating money so we can be there for people turning to us for help.”
Thanks to you, we’ve been able to be there for so many people over the last twenty years.
“We stick with people for as long as it takes”, is how Ann describes it. Leading the services team at South East Simon, Ann sees first-hand how people’s lives begin to change when they finally find a place to call home. “The best thing for me is…to see some dignity flashing across people’s faces when they realise it’s their space, their home.”
But that’s not the be-all and end-all, as Thelma explains. “Finding a home for someone, a home they can afford, doesn’t mean everything is wonderful.” Ann agrees: “Many would say to us they’ve never managed a home or never had a home. Many, many of the people we support are still unable to find peace – even in their own home. They struggle to find peace because of the trauma they’ve been through in their lives.”
“We have their back”
“But we never give up”, Thelma says. As a member of the South East Simon team that supports people to maintain their tenancies, she sees how “people feel at ease, feel that we have their back. And we do.”
That’s been Antoinette’s experience. “They’re just so supportive…they treat you with so much respect and so much kindness and compassion. They’d do anything to help you.”
It’s an approach that has been at the heart of South East Simon for twenty years. “We all have one overarching goal here”, Esme says. “Providing a safe sanctuary for people turning to us for help, especially if you had been out on the street in a very unsafe and scary environment.”
“For us”, says Ann, “it’s trying to support them to be able to find their peace, in whatever way we can.”
Sometimes that requires “a degree of creativity”, as Thelma puts it. “Coming up with solutions that might not be obvious at first. We’re not just another service. We have real impact on people’s lives.”
“A big change for me”
Antoinette describes that “real impact” as “like I won the lotto. I remember the day I moved in. It was a moment I’ll never forget. It was amazing. I felt so blessed. It was a big change for me; more security in my life knowing I wouldn’t be homeless.”
“To me, that’s huge”, Ann says. “Eventually, once you see people settle-in, you see they find a sense of contentment. Suddenly they’re able to go out there and mix with the wider community, whereas before they would have been judged by the community.”
None of that is possible without the generosity and kindness of so many people throughout the South East over so many years – twenty years.
“I meet people all the time who want to help, donate, do something meaningful”, says Ann. “They know someone we’ve helped over the years, maybe a relative or a family member. It’s what makes us a community.”
A community that helps to save lives and change lives. A community that believes in people. A community that cares.
“Very rewarding”
Thank you for everything you’ve done over the last twenty years to help make South East Simon a community, for helping to make the South East a better place, for helping people to find their peace, their sanctuary, their place to call home.
“It’s very rewarding”, says Thelma, “when we see people moving-on, living independently, feeling safe and getting on with their lives.”
Having you as part of our community means we can continue that work. “Everyone deserves a roof over their head and somewhere to call home”, Antoinette says. “Nobody should be judged. I’d like to see humanity accept people more for who you are and not what you live with. Nobody knows at the end of the day what illness you might have or what circumstances they’re in or how they managed to get homeless. And I think they need more support than anybody.”
Thank you for being there. Thank you for believing in people. Thank you for sticking by us so we can be there for everyone turning to us for help.
20 Faces
Antoinette, Ann, Esme and Thelma are among 20 people representing the thousands of men and women who, over the last 20 years, have made South East Simon the community it is today. Their words, their stories, our experience.