Making recovery achievable and sustainable for those facing homelessness and addiction
Why we have made this our mission
Life is difficult for people experiencing homelessness and addiction, and without a place to call home stability is hard to achieve. For people using drugs or alcohol, accessing and sustaining accommodation while managing all of life’s complexities becomes increasingly challenging. Lack of accommodation and addiction are inextricably linked and without addressing both neither will be resolved.
People experiencing homelessness and addiction who identify residential treatment as a primary goal will often be met with barriers, conditions and delays. If this describes your situation and you aspire to a life in recovery then The People’s Recovery Project is your community.
When people are given the opportunity to access residential detox and rehab the results can be transformative for the individual concerned.
The People’s Recovery Project is inspired by real journeys made by individuals experiencing homelessness and addiction through treatment and into recovery. These examples are currently the exception and through shared purpose our community is seeking to make recovery achievable and sustained for people in this situation.
We are building a community that has the knowledge and understanding to support people on transformative journeys and create an environment where great people can become greater people.
Recovery is Possible ….. tales from the community
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Danny's story
TPRP Community Member
‘I experienced 25 years of homelessness and addiction in London’s West End. Over the years I saw many people around me die due to drug related issues and poor health. One day I was standing in a phone box in Soho and decided that I’d had enough of the life I was living and decided that I wanted to go to residential treatment. This experience and opportunity was life changing and allowed me to heal, grow and reconnect with my family. And now I want to help others feel that recovery is possible’
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Khosru's story
TPRP Community Member
‘By my own admission I was a chaotic user of drugs and the way I used them was so dangerous I nearly lost my life. When I was in the thick of using my friends, family and support workers did not know if I would see the next day. I had a number of stays in residential treatment and I learned something from each experience and when I did finally get clean my family was there for me. Now I am married and have a beautiful young daughter and am so happy. I have realised that my knowledge is not something for me to keep to myself and now I want to support others to access treatment. I feel at home in The People’s Recovery Project community’
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Mariusz's story
TPRP Community Member
‘I had a lot of difficult experiences and traumatic events in my life that led me to using drugs to cope. I ended up living on the streets of London for 8 years. With nowhere to live and no support available to me due to my nationality I had no options. I continued to use drugs chaotically. The pandemic changed things for me as I was able to access accommodation and start to change things in my life. I started to reduce my drug use and managed to get a job which I love. I wanted to go to residential treatment but the drug service kept saying that I needed to maintain my methadone in the community and that there was no evidence that treatment would work for me. After 2 years I was finally given the opportunity to go to treatment. It has transformed my life and now my involvement with the community means I can try to help others when they need it’
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Denise's story
TPRP Community Member
‘I am an award-winning writer and film-maker, whose writing career began back in 2017 when I was newly in recovery and living in a homeless hostel. As a way to cope in an ever-changing and often challenging environment (and also as a way to understand myself and to try and make peace with my demons) I began to write.
I am a member of The People’s Recovery Project recovery community and share my knowledge and story in the hope that others can be inspired, and take heart in knowing that recovery is possible’
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Frank's story
TPRP Community Member
‘I followed my mum to London from Belfast as a 14 year old. Things didn’t work out and pretty soon I had nowhere to live and ended up living in a hostel for people experiencing homelessness. Looking back I was young, alone and quite vulnerable. It wasn’t long before I was introduced to drugs and alcohol and I became reliant upon them both physically and psychologically.
30 years later, after asking to go to detox and rehab for years, I was finally awarded the funding. Detox removed my physical dependancy and rehab helped me address the psychological side of things and rebuild. That was 10 years ago. I am still living without alcohol or drugs and I am now happily married and settled in London.
I feel lucky to have survived and now secure in my own recovery I am driven to make it possible for others’
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Interested in talking to us about the Recovery Community? Come and chat to us at our regular hub!
Support Someone today!
You can support someone today who is currently experiencing homelessness and addiction, to get the life saving and future building residential treatment that they need.
Invest in someone directly and see them see them get the treatment they need right now when they need it.
Your support will mean they can go to quality detox and then to a rehab, both residential. Here, safe, away from the streets, surrounded by quality support and with access to therapies it is possible for individuals to heal, grow and develop skills to build a sustainable.
How will we achieve our aims?
Achievable Recovery
We utilise carefully selected, high quality residential detox and rehab centres. Our peer led recovery community supports you throughout your treatment and recovery journey.
Our community is motivated by a shared purpose of making recovery opportunities more accessible for people. Together we will deliver:
Early intervention peer recovery groups
Specialist curation and coordination of pathways into residential treatment
Supportive relationships that endure throughout an individual’s journey
Sustainable Recovery
Our approach recognises that recovery is not a linear journey and is unique to the individual. Our aftercare community is available to people following residential treatment for as long as they need it.
We are a community that values wellbeing and seeks to create an environment for people to build connection, purpose and belonging. We do this by:
Supporting sustained recovery through mutual aid
Involvement in our community activities and campaigns
Working with academic partners to evaluate the effectiveness of our approach
Why focus on the intersection of homelessness and addiction?
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In 2022/23, nearly half of deaths amongst people experiencing homelessness were related to drugs and alcohol.
Over 1,300 people died whilst experiencing homelessness last year.
2/3rds of people experiencing street homelessness have a drug or alcohol need.
Over 10,000 people were verified as sleeping rough on the streets London last year, a 21% increase on previous year
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Problematic drug use can be a cause of street homelessness, it can also be caused by it.
Without solutions that seek to see individuals needs holistically and resolve concurrent intersecting needs, it can be hard to resolve any of the seperate issues effectively.
People using drugs should have access to support that empowers them make informed choices, that can lead to reduced harm and improved life chances. Some want to continue to use, but use more safely, others feel the only safe way forward is to stop using.
For some, residential detox and rehab is seen as the only solution to their homelessness and addiction. They felt they have tried everything else perhaps and it hasn’t worked. There are currently too few places and too many barriers making this route inaccessible.
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Costs: An individual experiencing homelessness and addiction to street drugs and alcohol is estimated to cost the state between £50,000 and £250000 a year.
Benefits: People making sustained exits from support services, provide year on year savings, often moving to becoming net contributors.
Unblocking accommodation pathways