“It’s scary to become homeless. Not all of us have a choice…”

Our Caritas House supported accommodation is home for 19 single men who are homeless and have accessibility needs.

Here, one resident tells us more about his experiences and how he has found the support from Caritas…

Please can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’m 45 years old and I like cooking. My favourite food is probably barbecue. Nice people make me laugh. I can ride a horse. I’m good with tools and maintenance jobs, like fixing cars and machinery too.

Please can you tell us more about how you came to be at Caritas House?

So, I lost my leg in 2023, and since I was released from hospital I’ve become homeless, so went through different places – hostels, hotels, council properties – and Caritas was actually my last stop on the journey. It has been a long journey of three years.

What was your situation before you came here? What were some of the challenges you faced?

The biggest challenge was disabled access – some of the places had no disabled access.

When I was released from hospital, they put me in a hotel, which was disabled accessible, but the bathroom actually had a bath inside instead of a shower.

So that was the biggest challenge for me in the beginning because I couldn’t have a bath because of the amputation. So the disabled access was the biggest challenge in some of the places.

That’s why Caritas is the best – it is fully accessible for me.

I never expected to live in a property which is fully adapted for me, and to be honest I didn’t understand what fully adapted means.

I was adapting myself to the life and waiting for life to adapt to me. If I had no bath or no shower, I’d just have to cope with it. I’m not going to complain. I don’t like to complain, I like to get on with whatever is given to me. But I’m lucky that Caritas House is fully adapted.

Is there anything that surprised you? What did you think when you arrived at Caritas House?

Yeah, the staff, you guys and the other residents are great. Just the warm welcome and you’re treated on the same level like everyone around.

Caritas was like relief. When I stepped in here and I saw the Caritas sign, I said I’m in a safe place now, just the name and the reputation of Caritas.

So that was something in the back of my head. It’s a safe place.

We’ve always got something to do. Most of the time we’re cooking, which is the most common activity. The staff are lovely. Whatever you need, I don’t have to go and make an appointment, I’ll just go and talk to staff.

The kitchen is the best, one of the best kitchens. I worked before in professional kitchens, I cooked for more than 14 or 15 people, and this kitchen is just amazing. We could actually be trained as chefs in this kitchen because there’s no limit. Last week, we cooked a meal for the whole building, which is 19 of us plus staff. The four of us in two hours had the meal cooked for 19 people.

The lower down worktops is the main thing.

I adapted the one table top next to the microwave which just suits me perfectly.

I don’t think there is anything more you can improve in this kitchen to be honest.

The person who designed this kitchen has worked with disabled people and he had a clue of what we actually needed.

Why is having more accessible accommodation for people experiencing homelessness so important?

Lots of homeless people have a lot of disabilities. They’re not necessarily in a wheelchair, but lots of people have access problems with buildings and stuff, where they need to go around the building with carers and support workers.

In my point of view, we shouldn’t have disabled access just for disabled people or people with disabilities. I think this should be as a standard of the building.

It’s not disabled access. It just makes life easy for everyone.

What does accessibility mean to you? If accessibility isn’t factored in when supporting people, what issues can arise?

Well, they can injure themselves, then there’s a quite a frustration when you want to go to the toilet and you can’t access the toilet, or you want to go to have a shower and you don’t have a railing system in there. I think it’s a bit of depression as well when you want to go to do your normal stuff and you can’t access some of the places in the building. It’s a bit depressing because that’s what is putting you down, living with disabilities. But here, I’ve never experienced something like that.

In some of the places I’ve stayed, they’re like “if you go there, ask staff to help you with this”, and I don’t really need this help. I want to be able to do it myself. So it’s dignity and just normal life I think.

If I want to go to the shop or I want to go to the back garden, there’s no issue, I don’t have to ask anyone to take me there. Or simple things with the rubbish, I can take my bins out, that’s a normal thing. In other places I’ve had to ask somebody to take my rubbish out of my room, which is just a bit embarrassing asking somebody. I think it just makes you feel normal here being able to do it yourself.

What memories have you created here at Caritas House?

I think I’ve made some friends for life here. It depends how long people stay and keep in touch. Coming back here will not even be part of memory but part of normal life and I want to, maybe not work with you guys but I want to help and give back to whatever needs to be done. If you need any help, I’m happy to help you.

What do you think the future looks like? What are you most excited about or most looking forward to in the future?

To be honest, the most exciting thing is just go and see my family. That would be the best. Since the amputation they didn’t see me yet. So that’ll be scary and exciting…And I think the most exciting things like day by day, coming back here from the freedom you know from outside, where to actually make my way here on the bus, taxi, whatever and actually come here from a different environment to this environment that I know already, that will be the most exciting thing.

What about getting your own property?

Yeah definitely, that’s really exciting.

I want to wake up in my place and make my breakfast and then all this stuff and have my own space. But then I said I will miss all the people from here. So it’s exciting to move out, but yeah, lots of things.

Would you recommend people seek support from Caritas to help if they are experiencing challenges right now, and if so, why?

Yeah, if they can choose to come to Caritas as a place, then yeah, I think they should try. I would definitely recommend Caritas as an organisation to help.

I don’t feel like it’s an organisation with Caritas, you’re a part of Caritas when you’re here.

You don’t feel like a small gear. You know, you could be small gear or you could be the main parts.

So in Caritas they consider your thoughts, your ideas and I think you’ve got more dignity here.

What do you wish people knew about people who are experiencing homelessness?

It’s scary to become homeless. Not all of us have a choice. so like in my scenario it just happened – the amputation and become homeless even after 25 years of working and bills, never claiming anything.

So you can’t classify everyone homeless as the same.

What would you say to people who are thinking of supporting Caritas or donating to help us run our services and support even more people in Greater Manchester and Lancashire? 

Big thank you to those that are supporting an organisation like this.

They help everyone and I think more people should get involved in Caritas and help.

Thank you.

To make a donation to support our work, please click here now.

Homelessness should not be an inevitability for anyone, and we hope you will join us in calling for an end to this crisis. 

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