To understand a bit more about what we do, hear directly from our team about their work supporting clients and the impact they see day to day. Sonya Levin is a support worker for clients who are moving on from homelessness, who have some temporary accommodation and who are working on stabilising their lives. 

How long have you worked at HAB? 

I started out volunteering here, and then joined the staff team in December 2019.

What is your role there? 

I work with people who have been given some accommodation on a temporary basis while they find work, or establish a more permanent place to stay. We build personal relationships with our clients, and once that trust is there can provide a range of support. I run workshops on maintaining a tenancy, budgeting and on being part of a community. I enjoy starting with someone's existing skills and working from there - what do people enjoy? What are they good at? Then let's look at how this can be connected with the change they want to see in life. 

What is your favourite thing about HAB? 

I wanted to work here because of the strong mission to be a place for change. The letters that we receive from past clients about how the service changed their lives show how much HAB can help people when they need some extra back up. I think that housing is such a basic need, losing it can affect everything else in life including mental and physical health. If you can get someone back into a stable home, they can build out from that.  

Oh. And our loyal volunteers. 

What is on your wish list for HAB?

Its a remarkable service here.  I think help comes from within, so my wish list always includes more ways that we can develop our activity and health/ well being programmes. We already offer acupuncture, self esteem, cooking, counselling as well as using tools like role play to prepare people for handling negotiations around tenancies, so anything that can help us build people's confidence around reaching their goals and changing their mindset if that's what they want.