A group of friends who organise walks with homeless and a businessman who launched a digital social enterprise project discuss the issues of homelessness, unemployment and cutting out the middleman.

By: Ingrid Ots, 21st C/N Reporter

“Our ambition is to change London’s consciousness to believing that it’s possible to interact with the city’s untouchables”, says Lydija Mavra, one of the founders of the Sock Mob, a group that gives an agenda-free support to socially excluded.

The Sock Mob organises a number of events to help homeless people to regain their dignity and self-worth. They serve as guides at walks at various central London locations, offering an alternative perspective to the city and a chance to challenge social stereotypes. For many homeless this experience proves to be empowering.

Lidija gives an example of Hazel, whose issues with alcohol lead her to the life on the street. Hazel was asked to be a guide for a Sock mob walk as part of the London Bridge festival and took her job very seriously. She interviewed other destitute people, and her alternative tour featured not only historical facts but also her own perspective and the stories of other homeless people.

Since then Hazel has managed to start sorting out her life and had to dart off to work during the meeting with the Sock Mob volunteers last time they saw her, adds Lidija laughing.

“Very often people who are forced to live on the street lack so-called soft skills such as confidence and the ability to plan their future”, says Marina, the Sock Mob’s assistant organiser.

“Such people have no safety net to fall back on, they are very often left to struggle with their anxieties alone. It profoundly affects their physical and mental health, and manifests itself in depression, loneliness and addictions”, she says.

People at the Sock Mob are offering warm human contact, they listen to homeless without trying to judge or fix them, she explains.

But even for those homeless who are able and determined to regain control over their lives, there are a lot of social barriers, especially when seeking a job. Homelessness and unemployment go hand in hand, and although government-funded agencies provide training and employment schemes to homeless, both Marina and Lidija think that the system is flawed.

“Agencies working with homeless receive money per capita depending on how many people are on their books each week. They are interested in getting the people through the rehabilitation and training process quickly as they receive bonuses for, for example, getting a person to work two months before an assigned time”, says Marina, who had worked for such an agency before.

“Many people find themselves pushed to accept the work they are not really mentally ready for or the one they don’t have the right skills for, or to get the qualifications they don’t really need. It is a sad sign to see so many people getting, say, an NVQ in Management and then really struggling to get any employment”, says Marina.

The Sock mobbers agree that money and more tailor-made support should reach the homeless directly, as opposed to funding going to a middleman. While they both recognise that some agencies are better than others, they say that a lot of resources would be spent better if the government could engage employers as well.

David Barker, who founded White Box Digital, a business that provides IT services to small charities, thinks that businesses can play a vital part in training and providing care for homeless, long-term unemployed and former addicts.

The Mancunian, who sold his house to conduct a one-year research into homelessness, gives an example of his own company that has created 14 work places for “unemployable”. Providing that they have successfully completed a rehabilitation process for at least six month, Barker’s business gives them training and provides services such as counselling with a view of offering a permanent place within the company.

Barker argues that businesses can enhance their public image by putting a “social enterprise sticker” in their title, in the same way as it is prestigious now to be “green”.

But can there exist a positive discrimination in favour of homeless and long-time unemployed? What could be the insensitive for businesses to do so? As one of the members of the meetup asks, why should businesses “employ the worst from the best”, i.e. at present harsh economic times why should employers consider homeless, or former homeless, people if , for example, they could employ a fresh graduate with a “clean” record?

“Perhaps, people who have been through hardship can appreciate such a chance more”, says another meetup member.

It turns out that homelessness is “not a four-wall issue”. It is a complex one and so is the strategy to eliminate it.

=> Check out their Meetup site for the schedule and location of upcoming Sock Mob walks.