Coronavirus: Ex rough sleeper in Stoke-on-Trent 'now wakes happy'

A woman who slept on benches and was homeless for several years after being told to leave her family home is now hoping to get her own place to live.

Marie, who did not want to reveal her real name, was among 66 rough sleepers given hotel rooms in Stoke-on-Trent because of the coronavirus lockdown.

Concrete, a charity based in the city, was commissioned by the local council to find them shelter.

It said 56 were still in some form of accommodation more than 15 weeks later.

Marie, who has learning difficulties, said she had watched her mother die when she was 10 years old and the loss had left her angry and frustrated.

The charity helped her find her mother's grave, which she had never been to before, and she said it had helped with her mental health.

"It was happy, knowing that she is there, it was just nice.

"She has got a place where her ashes are and it felt happy that I have found her again. I can go there or speak to her whenever."

Marie was told to leave her family home in Stafford when she was about 27 after relatives found she was selling items from her step-mother.

She slept on benches under a blanket until she was given a place at a shelter in Stoke-on-Trent two years ago. Concrete offered her a hotel room during lockdown.

She said: "Since I've been at the shared accommodation I've woken up every morning happy and jolly and I've never done that since I don't know how many years.

"Meeting new people and knowing that they love me and care for me made me realise I have got a stable future and a better future."

Marie said her ambitions for the future were to get more counselling over her mother's death and live in her own home with support.

Councils in England started moving rough sleepers into emergency accommodation such as hotels in March when authorities were given £3.2m government funding.

Nearly 15,000 people were helped through the scheme and ministers have said they are funding longer-term accommodation and tailored support.

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on rough sleepers in Stoke-on-Trent has been described as "life-changing" by Concrete's head of homelessness, Sarah Forshaw.

As well as giving them somewhere to live, the charity created a hub at a hotel to offer help including a nurse, a mental health expert and addiction services.

Out of the 66 people given a hotel room since April, the charity said 40 had gone on to supported accommodation and 16 had their own tenancy.

Mrs Forshaw said they usually saw high numbers of people leaving such schemes but that had not happened in this case.

Having been addicted to heroin for 20 years, George, who also did not want to give his real name, spent about two decades sleeping rough around Stoke-on-Trent.

Now in his late 30s, he was given a room in the hotel during lockdown and has been getting support to overcome his drug addiction.

"I was sleeping in the town centres with cardboard over me out of a skip or something like that as I couldn't find myself no covers or anything, and that's how I got into the hotel," George said.

After several weeks of support work during the pandemic, he said he was now looking forward to the future.

"I'm hoping just to get my own flat, my own home, so then I've got my daughter to come and see me there.

"I am proud of myself, it's just making myself see that. I've got to make myself see that."

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