Booth House Swindon Lifehouse

Our service is available to individuals over 18 who are experiencing homelessness. We are a direct referral accommodation provider working with Swindon Borough Council to support clients with medium to high support needs.

Our service is built around the individual need of the person and the support the person needs to find a suitable housing solution. Our Housing Pathway programme supports the client to address the areas that are a barrier or have an impact on their ability to source and secure suitable long-term housing. This includes support into other services providing drug and alcohol support, debt relief, mental and physical health and wellbeing support and other identified areas of need.

Clients can access our service by contacting Swindon Borough Council Housing Options Team.

We aim to create a calm, supportive environment where our residents feel empowered and respected. Our facilities include: 50 en suite Resettlement bed spaces and 2 Short-Term Sit-Up spaces. Communal spaces on each floor provide cooking and living areas. There is laundry access too. We have a chapel on site with a programme led by the centre Chaplain. There are many leisure activities provided and our bike shop, Recycles, and our catering business, The Sandwich People, are both on-site. They offer clients the opportunity to gain skills and be involved in running a small business.

Resettlement Accommodation
This service offers longer term accommodation and support for clients. During their stay the client will have access to our Support Worker service and be allocated a keyworker to provide advice and support to address any areas highlighted through our support planning process.

Clients using our resettlement service have access to a range of social activities and events on and off site, including film nights, arts and crafts sessions, Karaoke, quiz nights, guitar skills, photography, fishing, and access to our own registered cycle club.

Emergency Bed Space (Sit-Up)
This service is for referrals from Swindon Borough Council and provides emergency shared accommodation for 2 people nightly raising to 4 where the council has deemed that the weather is so bad that there may be an increased need for people to be housed. This is called the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP).

Chaplaincy
At Booth House we have a Core Recovery Fellowship (CRF) as part of a Salvation Army national initiative to offer an informal spiritual meeting led by our Christian chaplain. This meeting whilst inspired from the Christian tradition is underpinned by the values of being interactive, person centred and non-judgemental supporting a person’s spiritual journey. Everyone is welcome regardless of background or personal circumstances. To read more, see Core Recovery Fellowship Swindon.

Social Enterprises
Our Social Enterprises, The Sandwich People and Recycles, offer work experience opportunities and training in specific work skills including mechanics, food safety, customer service and sales. The enterprises are operated by our clients, giving them the chance to be involved in learning new skills while supporting the running of a small business.

Client Involvement
Our Your Say Forum for clients meets monthly and is open to all clients to come along and have their say in how Booth House is run and what support services are needed. A monthly Newsletter is produced for all clients to ensure that everyone is up to date and to feedback on issues raised at the forum. Clients are involved in policy and procedural development and actively encouraged to take part in the recruitment of staff.

Other Services
At Booth House we are linked in with many supporting agencies locally to provide a broad range of support and advice to our clients, these services include a weekly Drug and Alcohol Drop-In, a monthly good foot health clinic, access to an Employment Plus worker, debt advice and budgeting support, MIND counselling and support and much more. Through our monthly Your Say forum for clients, we regularly review and assess the services available.