Anna and Robert's story
Set up in just 36 hours, our severe weather emergency shelter provided a temporary home for 53 different homeless people with nowhere else to go. Anna and Robert found it hard to accept that they were two of these people.
Together for over 15 years, the couple ran a bar in Italy. However they missed England and decided to come 'home'. The couple believed that, with their experience, they could quickly find jobs in the hospitality industry. Things did not work out as planned.
The couple's applications were repeatedly unsuccessful on the basis that they were too old. With their savings running out and no family to turn to, they had to sleep on a friend's sofa: 'It seemed so undignified - at our age and after all of our hard work!'
Yet things soon got worse. Their friend led a very chaotic lifestyle and it all became too much. With no-where else to go they left, forced to sleep rough: "it was an extreme decision - it was absolutely freezing, but we really had no choice."
They had been sleeping rough outside a church for 10 long days when St Mungo's found them. The very next day we moved them to our severe weather shelter.
Providing the couple with shelter from the freezing cold, a warm bed and a hot meal was just the start. We found them a room in one of our hostels where they could stay together: "It would have been very lonely if we did not have each other."
Trapped in a vicious cycle, St Mungo's supported the couple to come to terms with their problems and look to the future with hope. Our Work and Learning Services Team helped the couple with job applications and training - enabling Anna to gain her food hygiene certificate: 'St Mungo's have helped us so much. They are helping us to put things behind us and get on with our lives.'
Anna has been temporarily resettled into independent accommodation whilst we continue to search for a permanent place for them both. In the meantime she cycles to visit Robert every day.