When the elephant in the room is a success story
Image © Glyn Strong/VeteransAid
It is now six years since the redevelopment of the charity Veterans Aid's New Belvedere House 'hostel' was completed – a facility that has broken the mould in terms of transforming homeless veterans’ lives. At a time when so many aspects of social care and wellbeing are under pressure CEO Professor Hugh Milroy asks why standout successes are often overlooked – particularly when their effectiveness has clear implications for the future.
It's a fact of life that flagging-up failure makes better headlines – and political capital – than celebrating success; perhaps to the point where achievements sometimes become sidelined or, even worse, ignored. The cost of this is help deferred and problems exacerbated. Such is the case with New Belvedere House, where positive outcomes are the norm – a success story perhaps at odds with the enduring and often erroneous narrative of veterans being failed? Curious visitors have come to learn about New Belvedere House from all over the world yet, despite its runaway success, it is rarely referenced in the UK.
Veterans Aid has re-imagined homelessness outcomes and created a facility that plays an integral part in delivering the charity's Welfare to Wellbeing© methodology – a facility that represents a paradigm shift in terms of tackling the effects of poverty and rough sleeping. I absolutely believe that our success story has much wider implications in the world of homelessness, social exclusion in general, and poverty in particular. In this respect, the fact that our clients served in HM Armed Forces, at some stage in their life, is academic!
Nowhere is the charity's success more demonstrable than at this wholly owned and operated facility. It may seem absurd to offer the model operated by one medium sized organisation as a template for addressing widespread veteran adversity but, like all effective blueprints, it represents a path that others can follow, to get the same result. In VA's case that is a steady 90% success rate in transforming lives. The long-term impact of the model has been to dramatically reduce numbers of street homeless veterans – which is perhaps why many of the big-brand ex-service organisations simply hand out our telephone number as an 'action' when confronted by poverty-stricken veterans.
I think this is an achievement that should be celebrated and used to show the public that veterans in distress have not been abandoned to call centres and sticking-plaster solutions. The AF Covenant incorporates lofty ideals, but it does not feed, clothe, and accommodate veterans who arrive at VA's door, from all over the country, with nowhere to go.
Looking back, I am staggered at how much money has been wasted on what can only be described, in many cases, as PR initiatives that have made little or no difference to the care of veterans in crisis. And I find it ironic that while the government Veterans Accommodation Fund, via the MOD, was one of the biggest funders of New Belvedere House's £8.4m refurbishment, not a single follow-up visit has yet been made to see the fruits of that investment – a true success story for struggling veterans in action.
Work started on the redevelopment of New Belvedere House in 2015. It was the beginning of a project that would take four years to complete. £3,500,000 of the funding came from the Government, after the then Chancellor announced that Veterans Aid would be one of the beneficiaries of the massive amount of LIBOR fines disbursed to Armed Forces charities. In September 2018, thoughtfully transformed to best support those who made it their temporary home, it was officially re-opened by London Mayor Sadiq Khan - who had also injected well over £1m into the refurbishment and who has supported our work ever since.
Veterans Aid was not the only beneficiary of these funds, but it is one prepared to illustrate how the money it received was spent and how the then Government's faith was rewarded. Its investment in New Belvedere House paid – and continues to pay – handsome dividends, and I would like to share them with you.
Since formally re-opening in January 2018 New Belvedere House has accommodated 538 veterans who were either homeless or facing the imminent prospect of homelessness (i.e. it has provided 94,335 nights of accommodation). Three hundred and one of these residents were supported through detox/rehab; 162 were put on training courses and suitable employment was secured for 368. In nearly every case, residents were helped into long term, sustainable accommodation.
Significantly, NBH remained fully operational throughout COVID lockdown – as did the charity's HQ-based operations team.
And yet... Government guidance on getting homelessness support as a veteran doesn't even mention Veterans Aid; arguably the only dedicated frontline agency offering immediate, practical support to UK veterans in crisis. The charity's Welfare to Wellbeing© model, and its success in transforming the lives of veterans in adversity, has been lauded by academics, veterans' organisations, and practitioners worldwide.
And yet... it remains largely unreferenced and unacknowledged in the UK where successive ministers and agencies announce copycat initiatives that are neither adequately funded nor provided with the tools or expertise necessary to deliver them.
Sour grapes? Not at all. Just a degree of bewilderment at the seeming reluctance to embrace methodologies that work, in favour of window-dressing that doesn't. I am confident that the new government will, when considering veterans issues, reach out to those with a proven history of successful delivery and not be fooled by brand and hype. Independently verified outcomes are the key. They will prove what works and what does not.
For the most part, the current systems for veterans in crisis are far too ponderous, bureaucratic and subject to the whim of individual likes and dislikes of those involved. For example, one benevolent organisation regularly refuses to help if VA is handling a case and seeking support on a bona fide veteran's behalf!
I'm not suggesting that there is a quick fix to broken Britain's post-Covid socio-economic implosion, or that with regard to veterans, this charity is resourced to deliver it. What I am suggesting is that those who have the power and influence to drive national change think less of political 'ownership' and more of outcomes.
What Veterans Aid/New Belvedere House has achieved in microcosm can be expanded to benefit individuals in crisis nationally – whether veterans or non-veterans.
The levels of homelessness in the UK are a shameful indictment of the sixth wealthiest nation in the world – which is why high-profile individuals are throwing their weight behind the drive to end it, and the Chancellor has just announced a raft of measures to tackle the housing crisis by pledging to deliver 1.5 million new homes. That is all well and good, but it doesn't address poverty, the underlying issue that our methodology has been tackling for years – and making a huge impact on the homeless veterans' piece.
As JFK allegedly said: “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan” – strange, then, that New Belvedere House's achievements have not had more recognition – as a rare example of a government investment that helped create a true veterans' success story!
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