May 29, 2019 5.05 pm This story is over 58 months old

See inside Lincoln’s biggest homeless shelter

They think that homelessness has peaked in Lincoln in the past year
See inside the biggest emergency homeless accommodation in the city.

Homelessness has peaked in Lincoln over the past year according to the city’s biggest provider of emergency accommodation, which has opened its doors to the public for the first time.

Framework opened on Beaumont Fee in November 2011, but has always kept the outside world at an arm’s length to protect its residents.

Since it opened it has consistently been full.

The Lincolnite has been inside the emergency homeless centre, which has 19 self-contained flats complete with a bathroom, kitchen and living space.

They have 19 self contained flats.

Each room has its own kitchen and bathroom.

It takes the homeless in for up to three months. In those months, Framework’s 11 staff members help residents apply for basic services like doctors, dentists and enrolled onto any addiction support.

Debbie Taylor, in charge of the day to day running, told The Lincolnite: “You have to be a certain type of person to do this job. It can be difficult at times but it is very rewarding when we move our residents forward.

“Homelessness has definitely been at its highest in the past year. I put it down to the number of people who move to Lincoln for jobs or access to services like Addaction.

“We have a city that is growing and the number of homeless grows with that.”

Staff and residents sometimes cook up communal meals for everyone to enjoy.

Framework is based on Beaumont Fee.

Framework deals with a range of reasons for homelessness like mental health problems, addictions, relationship breakdowns and many others.

She added: “These people have complex needs but we aim to help them onto the next steps like semi-independent living.

“It can be difficult to get our service users to share a house but these are all steps they need to take. In Lincoln it is all about working with different partner agencies to help homeless people off of the streets.”