The CEO Sleepout Fund helped community organisation TEES Community provide emergency support for people in Redcar & Cleveland who had nowhere safe to stay or were facing homelessness.
A £500 grant funded practical items including sleeping pods, tents, sleeping bags, phones, food and emergency accommodation. It meant TEES Community could support 12 more people at a point of crisis.
When people have nowhere safe to stay
In Redcar and Cleveland, around 1,200 households each year approach the council or other agencies for advice and support to prevent homelessness.
People become homeless, or face the risk of homelessness, for many different reasons. The council’s homelessness strategy identifies financial difficulty, debt, relationship breakdown, domestic abuse, mental health needs and people being asked to leave by family or friends among the local challenges.
For some people, the situation is immediate. They have nowhere safe to stay, no easy way to ask for help and no guarantee they will get through the night safely.
The CEO Sleepout Fund supports charities and projects tackling homelessness and poverty across the UK. Through Point North, funding reaches frontline organisations that can respond quickly when people need practical help.
TEES Community: reaching people in crisis
TEES Community (TEES stands for Together. Engage. Encourage. Support) works with people who have nowhere safe to stay or are facing homelessness in Redcar & Cleveland.
The team supports people who are often dealing with several issues at once: financial hardship, emotional crisis, isolation, poor mental health, addiction, insecure housing or a long history of being let down by services.
Recently, TEES lost two people they had been trying to support. The team knew that basic items, given quickly, could help them reach people who might not otherwise come forward.
With a £500 grant from the CEO Sleepout Fund, TEES bought emergency sleeping pods, tents, sleeping bags, phones, food and emergency accommodation.
These items gave people immediate protection and helped the TEES team start conversations. Once someone was safer, the team could begin the longer work of helping them access housing, support and stability. A TEES team member said:
“We know it has worked because the people we helped are still alive and surviving.”
A first home in 15 years
For one person supported by TEES, the help went far beyond emergency items.
He had been homeless for 15 years. With support from TEES, he has now moved into his own flat. The team helped make it feel like a home, arranging carpets, furniture, decorating and basic items.
That practical support made a personal difference too. He told the team:
“You saved my life and I cannot thank you enough for the respect, dignity, understanding, compassion, caring, honesty, patience, humility, kindness and love you have shown me. I feel worthy of living for my kids now.”
Why this type of funding is essential
For people with nowhere safe to stay, small practical items can make a serious difference. A sleeping bag, a phone, food or a short stay in emergency accommodation can help someone get through an immediate crisis.
The grant gave TEES practical resources they could use straight away, helping the team reach people who might not otherwise have come forward and stay alongside them beyond the first point of crisis.
Through the CEO Sleepout Fund, Point North helps funding reach organisations that know their communities and can act quickly. In Redcar & Cleveland, that meant 12 more people received urgent support, and one person who had been homeless for 15 years was helped into a home of his own.