Feature
Celebrating the achievements of homeless residents Residents in hostels supported by the council who have taken significant steps to rebuild their lives were honoured at the Camden Adult Pathway Awards. The Camden Adult Pathway Awards (CAPA) celebrate the achievements of single homeless people living in hostels and supported housing who have overcome enormous challenges. These include dealing with drug and alcohol addiction, getting help with mental health issues, overcoming past domestic violence or sexual abuse, addressing learning challenges, and successfully getting off the streets. The Camden Adult Pathway plays a key role in the success of preventing homelessness in
Camden. It provides 700 beds and support to single homeless adults across 19 services delivered by Camden, One Housing Group, the Salvation Army, SHP, Sapphire Independent Housing, Solace Women’s Aid and St Mungo’s. They support residents to access activities and programmes that open opportunities to improve their circumstances, including employment, training or engaging in creative activities like artwork, to help them achieve their ambitions. The Pathway includes large hostels, like Arlington in Camden Town and Endell Street near Covent Garden,
which have benefited from recent investment. They now provide open and welcoming reception areas, modern en suite accommodation and better communal facilities. In 2015/16, 262 homeless people were referred into the Pathway, and 247 people moved on from the Pathway into independent accommodation. If the Pathway didn’t exist, the likely alternative would be rough sleeping or sofa surfing. The awards evening took place on 27 April. Inspirational stories were shared by the 15 nominees, and some of the entertainment was provided by Pathway residents.
About the Pathway • It has been crucial to Camden’s homelessness prevention programme, which has significantly reduced the number of households in temporary housing. This figure dropped from 1,664 in April 2007 to 425 in April 2016. • Over 200 people are supported to move from the Pathway into independent accommodation each year. 20