A bruised reed he will not break and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out
( Isaiah 42 v 3 )

Housing and Long
Term Aims

Marah’s long term aim is to provide access to housing within the community enabling those who desire it, a return to normal society. One of the greatest and often most heart breaking problems encountered for this client group is in finding appropriate accommodation. Marah has seen a growing need for emergency bedding, as well as supported temporary accommodation such as ‘dry houses’ where clients can put into practice the skills needed to move on into their own unsupported permanent homes.

"Access to appropriate stable accommodation is essential for effective drug treatment services for homeless people"

"Housing is crucial to rehabilitation of users and maintaining gains made in treatment; secure and stable housing may stimulate natural recovery processes for people not in treatment."

"There is little point providing detoxification treatment for a homeless person with a chaotic lifestyle if he or she does not continue to receive support and to find and/or sustain accommodation” . 

Diagram of Marah’s long term plans for reintegration and housing based on Prochaska and Di Clemente Model (1982)

Marah believes that housing with support can provide a stable base for people leaving rehabilitation or prison, or for substance misusers wanting to stabilise their lives in order to progress into detoxification or rehabilitation.  

Getting access to housing is a major issue for helping many people with (or who have had) drug problems get back to normal life. This process may be particularly difficult because of rent arrears or poor behaviour in past tenancies. 

For many homeless people who have drug problems there may be a number of factors that make keeping a tenancy difficult. There is a high chance that they may have been chaotic and injecting. There may also be the added issue of mental health problems. 

It is widely recognised that housing and support can play a key role in helping people to tackle their substance misuse, and that a lack of housing and support can at best render treatment ineffective and at worst unusable or inaccessible.
  

Send mail to info@marah.org.uk with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2005 The Marah Trust
Registered in England, Registered No: 5731514. Registered Charity No: 1115471
Last modified: 03/09/09