As part of Starts at Home Day, which celebrates the value of support services and for many people to have safe and secure homes, Braedon highlights why supported housing is so important.
Similar to many other young people in the region, Braedon was recommended supported housing schemes after becoming desperate for a home at 16-years-old.
Supported housing helps young people on their way to independent living by helping them manage finances, applying for financial support, education, finding a job, cooking, cleaning, counselling and much more.
Not quite realising what supported housing was until he needed it, Braedon is overjoyed with the support he’s had from LiveWest and recommends its services for other young people in need.
Braedon said: “I think it’s absolutely brilliant that LiveWest has supported housing because at the end of the day, I would have nowhere to go if there wasn’t anything.
“The staff are absolutely awesome here… they have supported me so much, from the simple things, to getting over trauma and all sorts. It’s been absolutely amazing.”
After many success stories and the high demand for supported housing for young people across the country, Braedon – like others- notes how important it is to be able to offer services.
We offer 13 supported housing schemes for young people across the South West, as well as support for older residents with extra care, adults and families, people with learning disabilities, and services provided by other organisations in our properties.
LiveWest has recently launched its Let’s Talk Supported Housing Campaign to share stories of residents using its services and raise awareness of supported housing.
He said: “Supported housing is massively important. So many people, especially around my sort of age and younger, go through situations where they could end up in similar situations to what I have.
“They don’t know where they can go which also causes such a struggle on mental health.
“The more people understand supported housing, the more support they can get.
“Before coming here, I didn’t know anything about supported housing. I briefly heard from one of my mates that I went to college with but except for that, I barely knew it existed before I worked with social services to move out.
“If it wasn’t for the network here, I would be struggling a whole lot more.”
Helping Braedon to find a place to call home when times were tough, the 18-year-old joined our foyer a few weeks before his eighteenth birthday.
Hoping to be announced as one of the quickest residents to have his own home in the coming months, Braedon is excited to see what the future holds as he’s set on become a video game developer and to settle down with his partner.
“I always try to look to the future and never look back,” he says.
“Things happen and things go wrong in life but at the end of the day, it’s only the future that can be written.
“I’m happy that I’m safe, I have a roof over my head. The bare necessities are enough for me in life. I have always been raised with very little so I’m happy wherever I am.”