Here at Maggs, we offer various services to help the homeless and vulnerable. We want to showcase what we get up to by putting together a day in the life of each of our departments and how your donations help offer unique, tailored support.
The fourth installment in our ‘Day in the Life’ series is from Dann, one of our Tenancy Sustainment Workers, working closely with the residents in our Accommodation Project.
9:00am:
The team arrives at the offices, and we check our diaries for the day ahead. I’m booked in to support one of our residents with high anxiety to attend an important medical appointment at 10am, so I make my morning phone call to them, making sure they are awake.
Unfortunately, I get no answer, so I grab my walking boots and walk to the property to check they are up and awake for their appointment. After a 20-minute stomp, I make it to the house and find them up and about with their morning cup of coffee (wishing I’d bought mine with me). Together we head off to the appointment, where we talk about what is making them anxious today and start chatting about what they’re going to do with the rest of their day to take their mind off the appointment.
One of our suggestions, as it’s a sunny day, is that they are thinking of doing some work in the communal garden and clearing some space for new plants.
10:00am:
We arrive at our appointment, and it goes well. Allowing our residents to have a second set of ears and eyes in important meetings means they don’t have to worry when they miss information as we can help them to understand what’s being said to them and help communicate their worries to other professionals when they may have avoided it in the past.
They are pleased with the outcome and that the professional took the time to listen to them, and we discussed their worries about what was said on the walk back to the house.
11:00am:
While I’m at the house I complete some welfare checks on the other residents. The team likes to give everyone their own space to relax, but we make sure to be a regular presence so they can reach out to us outside of any booked appointments.
Another resident raised concern about someone trying to enter the house last night, so I assured them we would investigate the concern and watch through the CCTV to give them peace of mind.
I sit down in a quiet space and after a few minutes of scanning the footage discover it is one of the other residents returning without their keys – fortunately another resident was awake and let them into the house.
Next, it’s on to another shared house for the weekly safety checks and scheduled support sessions.
12:00pm:
My co-worker and I arrive at the next property for our scheduled visit and find only one of our residents is up to meet us. While my co-worker starts the support session with them, I begin our compliance testing – we make sure to check all our fire equipment once a week, as well as checking first aid kits, escape routes and various other safety checks.
Our manager keeps a detailed schedule of what works are needed for the properties and keeps them as safe as possible for our residents. The final part of our checks is the weekly fire alarm test, which also encourages the residents to wake up.
We give them all fair warning before the tests, and soon they come down to meet with us.
1:00pm:
This afternoon begins with a support session with one of our residents: this week they have been looking at starting part-time work but worry about how it may affect their tenancy.
We work closely together to work out what is affordable for them and set up meetings with their Job Centre coaches to discuss what support they can offer them.
We then check their ‘Housing for You’ bidding and see that they are getting higher positions on properties. They are keen to move into their accommodation soon, so we start putting together a list of tasks to complete in preparation for a move-on, so they are not caught off guard when they eventually get their offer.
2:00pm:
My next support session begins with another resident. They are reluctant to leave their room today, so they allow me to go sit in with them. Their mental health is very low today after hearing some bad news about a friend, so we sit for an hour talking about how they are feeling and what they can do to cope with the emotions they are experiencing.
I encourage them to come out of their room with me to get something to eat and have a wash and they start chatting with some of the other residents which helps them process what’s going on, as they all knew the person. We agree to leave the housing support today and rearrange for a day when it won’t be as overwhelming.
3:00pm:
We head back to the offices to write up our notes and grab a bit of late lunch but get a call from one of our residents asking for a food bank voucher. During the conversation, they mention that they haven’t seen the resident in the flat below them recently and are a bit worried.
My colleague and I took a trip up to one of our self-contained flats to do a welfare check as we have not heard from them either in the past few days.
The resident is in but says their prescription was not in the pharmacy this week and their mental health is suffering from not having the right medication. We support them to call up the GP for an emergency prescription and after it is issued walk with them to the pharmacy to avoid any further issues. They thank us for checking in and say they will thank their neighbour for raising the concern.
4:00pm:
We finally get back to the office and manage to get lunch – the last part of our day allows us to record our notes of what’s happened today and discuss with other teams the possible support and solutions that could help our residents. Being able to talk with the team helps us decompress from a hectic day and reflect on the work we all do.
5:00pm:
The end of the day rolls around quicker than expected and a few notes are made to be caught up on tomorrow, but then it’s time to head home and rest before another busy day tomorrow!
