Geoff worked as a gardener for 15 years at the University of Leeds – a job he loved.
But he was forced to leave his job and move back to York to care for his mother after she was diagnosed with lung cancer.
She lived in a rented flat that Geoff couldn’t afford to take over after she died.
And with nowhere else to turn he found himself facing homelessness.
“I felt bad; I was really low,” the 57-year-old says. “I was homeless in York with foxes and hedgehogs.”
He slept rough, started taking drugs and drinking up to seven bottles of wine daily.
He was homeless for months before deciding to walk through the doors of Changing Lives’ hostel in Union Terrace and admit that he needed support.
“When I came in here, I was frightened,” he tells The Press at the hostel. “I didn’t want to come in.”
But Geoff explains that the hostel is nothing like how he thought it would be.
“It’s a nice place,” he concludes.
Geoff has lived at the hostel for the past eight months and says the support he received now means he’s thinking about getting a flat of his own and starting his own gardening business.
He says he hasn’t taken drugs since he’s been there and has cut down on his drinking using Oaktrees – a service delivered by Changing Lives, offering treatment for individuals recovering from drug and/or alcohol misuse.
Geoff got involved with a gardening programme at the hostel in its on-site garden and says it brought him back from “rock bottom”.
Residents have helped build a green house and plant flowers and vegetables in an on-site allotment.
“I’ve got my buzz for gardening again,” says Geoff. “It was lovely last year watching everything grow.”
Nathan Killeya from Changing Lives is spearheading the projects.
“Geoff is now our resident gardener,” Nathan says, met with a laugh from Geoff who later adds: “If it hadn’t been for Nathan and this hostel, I think I’d be dead.”
Nathan explains that Geoff teaches other residents about gardening, drawing on his professional experience.
On what it’s like to see residents like Geoff benefitting from the projects, Nathan says: “It’s gold. It’s why I get out of bed in the morning.
“Going to a hostel is one of the hardest things people can do.”
He adds that people “lose touch of who they are” when they enter the hostel and can only focus on being homeless and the problems they’re facing – often bereavement, addiction and mental health problems.
“When I give them a job they’re no longer homeless guys in a hostel – they’re a professional.”
New workshops aim to help residents after they leave hostel
Nathan hopes to support residents further by building an outside unit to house bricklaying, plastering and joinery workshops.
These trades will be taught by residents – many of whom were previously professionals in the fields – so the men can leave the hostel with new skills. Nathan also hopes to get businesses on board to help them.
Without support like this, he says the men are likely to “boomerang” back into housing services because they don’t know what their next steps will be.
He says this is particularly important in York where he’s noticed an increase in young men (some as young as 18) entering the hostel and needing help.
“The potential is huge and fundamental to change thinking about how we support people.
“It’s important to give people creative solutions to find out who they are and what they want to do.”
- The Samaritans say that whatever you’re going through, you can call them for free, at any time, from any phone, on 116 123.
