Homelessness advocate takes the lead at TLA

YORKSHIRE homelessness charity Turning Lives Around has a new chief executive at

its helm.

An active part of the Leeds housing and homelessness community for more than 25 years, Steve Hoey started out volunteering at Leeds charity Caring for Life while at university in Leeds. After graduating, he worked first at St George’s Crypt’s night centre before returning to Caring for Life and their resettlement programme.

Roles within Canopy Housing where he secured Empty Homes Funding from the government and won both local and international awards, plus Neighbourhoods and Housing with

Locality followed. Most recently, he was CEO for Leeds Community Homes and People Powered Homes where he raised £360,000 via a Community Share Issue to develop community-led affordable and sustainable housing in Leeds.

Driven by a compassion for people who are disadvantaged which stems from growing up with his much-loved sister Joanne who is severely disabled, Steve has a passion to house and support vulnerable people and his move to Turning Lives Around (TLA) fits the bill perfectly

Working with vulnerable people at the margins of society, TLA employs 150 people and has a turnover of £6m delivering a wide range of tailored services to support people struggling to find and keep homes due to such factors as drug and alcohol misuse, debt and poverty, criminal behaviour, mental health issues and domestic violence.

“My early career was spent working directly with homeless people, so this job is almost like coming full circle,” said Steve.

“Most people who are homeless have had troubled childhoods. They have been abused, traumatised or been through the care system and that, combined with other factors plus health and psychological issues, often leads to their predicament.”

Getting people’s lives back on track once they have become homeless in this way is not easy and takes time, patience, kindness, and trust from people working for organisations like TLA building relationships and doing their absolute best.

Steve commented: “The best support workers are those who are, compassionate, kind, and professional. TLA has some amazing examples of that. It is a brilliant organisation with such a long history having recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. It is well thought of and doing a lot of good but is complex and faces several challenges.”

Top of those challenges are staff recruitment, retention, and funding. The current economic squeeze is having an impact in all directions. Demand for TLA’s services has never been higher but with local authorities and funding providers forced to make budget cuts the money is not there for more support.