‘I work with homeless veterans. It takes more than a bed for Christmas to help them out of homelessness’

The prime minister has announced a further £102 million to get people off the streets this winter, on top of the £340 million already pledged since he took office. I welcome the ambition wholeheartedly.

But an emergency bed will get someone through the winter, but it won’t, on its own, get them out of homelessness for good. I’d measure this investment’s success less by how many people are indoors by Christmas and more by how many are still in a home of their own a year later, settled, working, and part of a community again.

In my experience of working with homeless veterans at Royal British Veterans Enterprise (RBVE), some are visibly sleeping rough, but many more are sofa surfing, sleeping in cars, or moving between temporary arrangements, invisible in the rough sleeping count altogether. Some are behind beach huts or tucked away in woodlands. Others go further still, destroying their own documents so there’s no trail left to find them, wanting to stay hidden rather than be seen. Because of this, the true extent is likely far greater than any of us realise.

Helping them out of homelessness for good rarely comes down to a bed alone. We see this at our village in Kent, home to hundreds of veterans and their families, where secure homes are integrated with employment pathways.

Without a job, a home you actually want to be in slips further and further out of reach. It’s a hard cycle to break, and often impossible without the right support. We’ve found that 72% of our veterans who went on to live independently did so because they’d secured paid work first. The two go hand-in-hand and it’s moving to watch someone step into their long-term home, one they’ve chosen and worked for.

Community matters just as much, and I think of Ned when I say that. He was only 24 when he arrived with us, but he’d already carried more pain than most people face in a lifetime. He’d grown up in the care system, with all the instability that comes with it, and later, despite passing his military training, was discharged from the Forces on medical grounds. When he turned to his foster family as an adult, they didn’t want him back, not even for a few weeks. He told me once that at his lowest point he’d eaten food he’d found on the pavement. I could see what it cost him to tell me that. Veterans carry their pride for good reason, and no one who has served should ever find themselves there.

But at RBVE, Ned wasn’t on his own anymore. He was surrounded by other veterans, all working to turn things around, and something in him started to shift. He began volunteering as a youth worker, then trained as a teaching assistant, found paid work, and passed his driving test along the way. Today he lives fully independently, and the rejection he once felt after leaving the Forces feels like someone else’s story now. I don’t think that change is possible alone. It’s only when you’re surrounded by people who believe in you that you start to believe it yourself.

It’s a home, a job, and community, together, that gets someone through, and that’s exactly what I think the prime minister is pushing towards too. Alongside the funding, he’s asked leaders across business, finance, charities, health, and faith communities to play their part locally. I think he’s right, and this is exactly where employment and community support come in.

Read more:

• New prime minister Andy Burnham starts with vow to end rough sleeping. Here’s how he aims to do it
• ‘If people are sleeping rough, to me it says we don’t have the care for people that we should have’
• Nationalisation, buses and homes for rough sleepers: This is what Andy Burnham’s Britain will look like

It takes government continuing to open up public contracts to those who need them most, employers willing to back someone rebuilding their working life, and communities willing to welcome someone back in. Every March, thousands show us that this matters to them personally too, taking part in The Great Tommy Sleep Out and giving up their own beds for one night to stand with homeless veterans.

An independent evaluation of our Lifeworks employability programme found that for every unemployed veteran who moves into paid work, society benefits by at least £39,000 per person, through reduced welfare costs and increased local spending. Multiply that across everyone this funding could reach, and the return, for individuals and the country, is significant.

The prime minister’s ambition is a welcome one and I say all of this in support of it. We already know what it takes to end homelessness for good, because it’s what we do for the people we support at RBVE. What I’d love to see now is more communities like ours, with the investment and partnerships to deliver it at scale, so that a bed for Christmas becomes only the beginning of someone’s future.

Lisa Farmer OBE, chief executive of Royal British Veterans Enterprise (RBVE)

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