A Sense of Urgency

Where does the time go? I can hardly believe that I have been in post as Operational Director for a whole year already! It has definitely been a sharp learning curve for me and I feel lucky that I have had been given so much support from the people around me. Consequently, KCAH is still in good (but not robust) health and we continue to do a fantastic job in assisting people in the local community who have housing issues. This is well recognised, from the local MP through to the local Council. However, we can do so much more! And the only way to do so is to grow! In the past year, I have visited and spoken at 14 churches and KCAH is grateful for the tremendous support that the local Churches give us, through prayer, practical gift donations and with financial help. We have recently had a Review Day and we recognise that we are overly-dependent on the financial support of the Churches and with the money provided by Kingston and Merton Councils. However, this money will not sustain KCAH beyond the short, foreseeable future. Consequently, it is important to reach out to local businesses and to Charitable Trusts to see if there are other funding sources available to us. However, the local Churches are still crucial to our existence and I really am keen to invigorate the Churches Together to discover how we can unlock the untapped resources that abound with our local Churches. I want the local Churches to take more ownership of the Charity that they set up in 1993 in recognition that there was a homelessness problem in Kingston. So, for instance, are there any professionals out there who can offer some time to help KCAH become a more efficient organisation? With only four full-time staff and all of us spending the majority of our time carrying out front-line duties, we are actually dependent on others to offer their expertise in order to help us become a more professional outfit (more than we already are!). I dream at night of someone who is a whiz at website design who could make our website more interactive, up-to-date and attractive to potential funders. Surely, within the 55 churches, you exist and can volunteer some time to KCAH!? In essence, we are looking to invite the Churches Together representatives in the early Autumn to see how we can best utilise the resources of the Churches – resources that will help KCAH to thrive. We can look at ideas such as, can a Church ‘sponsor’ one of our houses within our accommodation project ? This may involve a spot of gardening now and again or helping with a lick of paint from time to time. The possibilities are endless and all need to be explored. I recently spent a morning with a home group from Christ Church in Surbiton, who gave up their Saturday morning to put life back into a garden of one of our houses which was in danger of becoming seriously overgrown. Thank you so much !! Over the last year, KCAH has seen 32 tenants in our Access Project move on - most of them successfully. This is an amazing achievement. Nathan Erasmus’s report indicates that we are putting more of our resources in trying to support our tenants and our hope is that this will contribute to more successes with Access Project tenants finding more secure, settled accommodation. That is what we are all about. The demand for accommodation for single, homeless people is such that we will be opening an eleventh house in August. But we are receiving no more funding to do this and we still have only two staff workers responsible for what will soon be 49 tenants, all of whom have some level of support needs. On our Advice Section, Patricia is now our sole staff member, dealing with housing advice and welfare benefits issues. We do not have the funding for a second staff member at this time although we are still striving to find the funding to then be able employ a debt/welfare benefits adviser. In the last financial year, we saw 554 new clients walk through our door, compared to 563 the year before. The difference now is, we have only one staff member dedicated to seeing those clients. Patricia’s workload has therefore increased beyond stretching point and so it is vital that we secure new funding to at least employ a part-time member of staff. Consequently, you can no doubt sense that feeling of urgency in this article ! Those of us involved in KCAH already are passionate about the work that goes on here. It is definitely a Charity worth investing in. And we want to start thinking BIG !

Matt Hatton

Operational Director