The Southampton Street Intensive Service

St James’ Intensive Service provides short-term (up to six months) accommodation and intensive support to recently homeless people who often have many complex needs and are in desperate need of support. This service consists of a 26-bed hostel and 19 flats and aims to supports the residents from their first day, to achieve a degree of stability in their lives.

This service starts by providing safe, good-quality accommodation, good food, and someone to talk to. Each resident is allocated a key-worker, and together they will make plans for the future and get residents into specialist services where needed. Some of our service users have mental health issues and some have been in trouble for offending, prostitution or anti-social behaviour. Many have issues with heroin, crack, alcohol or other drugs and therefore need specialist support to help address their issues.

It is not always easy to tell whether such issues caused individuals to become homeless, or whether the experience of life on the streets led to people developing these problems. But it is clear that people find it almost impossible to address these kinds of issues whilst they are sleeping rough.

People who wish to access the Society’s supported housing should start by contacting the Southampton Street Prevention Team by phoning: 02380 216000.