Aims and Services
The Homeless Outreach Project (HOP) works with homeless adults in Edinburgh to help them secure and sustain accommodation. We provide practical and emotional support on a wide range of issues relating to homelessness, with the central aim of preventing rough sleeping. Our work is targeted particularly at individuals with complex and multiple needs, who often find it difficult to access more mainstream services.
Specialist staff teams assigned to Streetwork, Addictions and Mental Health work closely together, creating an integrated, flexible approach which can be tailored to each client’s specific circumstances. We also provide a roving needle exchange service, and work in partnership on a range of employability initiatives, while offering general advice and support on issues such as benefits, education, housing legislation and welfare rights.
Each year, HOP conducts an overnight headcount and survey in Edinburgh city centre, to monitor the incidence of rough sleeping. We also manage five bed spaces, in three council-owned flats, which are primarily earmarked for clients with complex or multiple needs, enabling us to offer intensive support in making the transition from rough sleeping to tenancy.
History and Referrals
HOP was established in 1992, originally as a mental health outreach initiative for homeless people. Over subsequent years, the project has expanded into a comprehensive team of outreach professionals, with a range of specialist skills in streetwork and alcohol/drug problems as well as mental health. Since 1998, our funding has derived mainly from the governmental Rough Sleepers’ Initiative and the Mental Illness Specific Grant. Clients are referred from a variety of sources, including statutory and voluntary agencies, homeless hostels, and self-referral.
HOP works with approximately 1000 clients each year, of whom around half are identified as experiencing mental health difficulties. A further high proportion have problems with dependency on alcohol, drugs or both, with considerable overlap between all these groups.
How We Work
HOP’s primary practice model is one of assertive outreach: pro-actively identifying and engaging with potential clients, and delivering services where they are, or in another situation of their choosing, be it on the street or in a hostel. This method enables us to reach clients who remain undetected by other health, welfare and social services, while joint working within the project creates a holistic approach to addressing their needs. We also work in conjunction with a variety of other agencies, including the Edinburgh Home Link Partnership, Edinburgh Homeless Practice and the Harm Reduction Team, to help clients access wider services and provide for follow-on support.
Mr P For Persistence
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Mr "P", 43, slept rough in Edinburgh for many years. He was usually to be found staying in the same doorway, enabling HOP staff to engage with him over a period of time. While living on the streets, Mr P made use of very few homeless services other than food handouts, and had even stopped attending the winter night shelters, following a dispute with another of their clients. Initial ...
Partnership - a key to success
Thursday, January 24, 2008
HOP’s Street Outreach Workers first met a 26 yr old Edinburgh man during an early morning shift. We found him sleeping in a doorway, bought him a coffee and a bacon roll, and gave him some clean needles (for his injecting drug use). Like many homeless people, he had previously been in the Army, and told us that he’d started using drugs, mainly heroin, because of the awful sights he ...
Rough Sleepers Headcount
Thursday, January 24, 2008
On the evening of the 21st June 2007, we conducted our 10th annual Rough Sleepers’ Headcount. The count is an overnight “snapshot” of the number of individuals sleeping rough in Edinburgh City Centre. The Headcount has been a yearly event, conducted by HOP since 1997. It involves 22 experienced outreach workers thoroughly searching all of the city centre’s streets, lanes and closes, along ...
