The guests are a mixture of rough sleepers, sofa surfers, those in old boats, vans and caravans, some in a local hostel and those with their own homes but with issues that can make their tenancies vulnerable. Most are in and out of housing of one sort or another, with very few being continuously homeless.

Without a settled home, many find it very difficult to deal with the sort of issues that actually face many of us. Rent arrears, for example,  is often a problem. Difficulties with alcohol and drugs are also really hard to deal with. Mental illness is not easy to recover from at the best of times. All these issues are that much harder to deal with if you are sleeping rough. Two or three of them combined together create an almost impossible 'mountain to climb'. Any of us trying to overcome these difficulties would need a great deal of support and encouragement.

This is where ongoing contact and conversation with members of the Opendoors team creates a kind of pathway. Steps by step, progress can be made. Encouragement leads to agreements and ongoing support makes target-setting realistic. There are few quick fixes but Opendoors is in this for the long term.