Not Just a Roof: Rethinking Shelter, Safety, and Human Dignity

“It looks like so many different things. It’s not drug-affected, alcohol misuse… It’s people who’ve just got out of hospital and have nowhere to go.”

When Katie said that, I saw the look in her eyes - part empathy, part disbelief.

Disbelief that we are still getting this so wrong.

That we, as a society, still picture the same tired stereotype: someone on the street with a needle in their arm or a bottle in their hand.

But the truth? Homelessness doesn’t wear one face. It doesn’t fit in one box.

Katie shared stories that made that reality impossible to ignore.

People working full-time but still sleeping in cars. Women fleeing unsafe homes, doing whatever it takes to stay hidden and protect their children.

Not everyone without a roof is without resilience - but they are often without safety.

And that’s the part we don’t talk about enough.

There’s this idea that offering a roof is the same as offering real support.

But a place to stay isn’t always a place to rest.

Is it up two flights of stairs when someone just got out of surgery?

Is it a shared space next to someone in active addiction, when you’re a mum trying to protect your child?

Is it a space where you don’t feel safe enough to sleep?

A place to stay should feel safe.

A place to rest should actually feel like rest.

Katie’s spent years volunteering - listening to people, helping out where she can. She knows how complicated these situations are.

Now she works with Orange Sky, the vans you might have seen offering laundry and showers out in the community. But they also offer something  else.

Time.

Space.

A conversation.

It’s not that a conversation changes everything. But sometimes, it changes something.