Veterans construct their own homes, and rebuild their lives

Danny Heavens, 28, still can’t believe that the bright, warm flat close to Bristol city centre is his home. Adjusting to stability after the six years of homelessness that followed a six-year stint in the army is going to be a challenge, admits the former Grenadier Guardsman.

For the last 12 months, Heavens has been one of 10 homeless veterans who has helped build the very homes they now live in. Pioneered by the charity Community Self Build Agency (CSBA), the initiative was the brainchild of its chair, Stella Clarke, whose brother Lord King served as defence secretary under Margaret Thatcher, and a former army major Ken Hames.

Although concrete figures on homeless veterans in the UK are hard to come by, it is a recognised problem. A newspaper investigation in 2013 found an estimated 9,000 rough sleepers – one in 10 – across the UK had a military background. Research ahead of a previous CSBA housing pilot in 2012 – which built 10 homes for ex-military personnel and four for people with learning disabilities in Bristol – found that one in four people sleeping rough in the city had been in the armed forces.

Heavens didn’t spend six years solely on the streets, he also stayed on friends’ sofas – known as sofa surfing – and lived in hostels. He says that adjusting to civilian life was a shock to the system, especially as he was suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). “In the army, you do and see things that no human being is meant to see or cope with and then you come out and you feel you can’t trust anyone.”

Heavens, who expects to soon find work as a forklift driver, says of his flat: “Living here is overwhelming sometimes. It still doesn’t feel real. Sometimes I sit here at night when my partner’s in bed and I’m just waiting for something to go wrong. But it is grounding me. My blood, sweat and everything is in this flat.”

Alex Kemp-Hall, who spent five years in the RAF, also found it hard to adjust to life as a civilian. He found himself homeless after being bereaved and losing his home. He says: “Being street homeless wasn’t something I ever expected. I think I’ve lived quite a mollycoddled life so it was a shock.”

Bristol has seen a 30% rise in homelessness over the last three years while the figures for those at risk of homelessness has also risen dramatically. Nick Hooper, service director for strategic housing at Bristol city council, says: “It’s partly because Bristol has been hit hard with fast-rising house prices that are pricing people out. And changes to welfare have also caused problems.”

Kemp-Hall doesn’t just have a roof over his head. United Living, a housing developer and training organisation, was brought in to work on the CSBA project, alongside Knightstone Housing Association. It is about to offer him a full-time job as a newly qualified site manager. Eight of the participants are now in work or further training. Mark Perry, the area manager for United Living says: “The key to success was having a designated trainer to support [the participants]. We’ve had some highs and lows but none of them would say they didn’t get anything out of it. A lot of them were very dependent when they started. They’ve all gained new skills and now live somewhere where they know all their neighbours.”

Anita West, who was in the army catering corps in the late 70s, is almost unrecognisable now, according to trainer and site manager, Jason Ivens. “She turned up on the first day with a walking stick and sheepskin coat and looked worn out by life. I thought, I’ve got no use for her. But soon she was striding up in a vest top and getting really stuck in.”

Although West doesn’t intend to go into construction, she agrees that the scheme has given her a huge boost. “My confidence has definitely improved. I’d never been so low as I was before coming here. I didn’t know what was going to happen to me. But I don’t feel like that at all now. It’s amazing to be in a flat I helped build. I’ve seen every single stage.”

The scheme’s £1.4m housing costs were publicly funded by the Homes and Communities Agency. In addition funds were raised from various charities for the training. The benefits of the project and its cost-effectiveness are now being studied by a team at the University of the West of England.

The results will be viewed with interest by the organisations behind a much larger veterans’ housing scheme that has been given the go-ahead by Wiltshire council on a former barracks near Salisbury Plain. By 2017, the site on the fomer Erskine Barracks will be transformed by Redrow Homes, Wilton Community Land Trust and regeneration and development specialist, Our Enterprise, to provide at least 44 homes for veterans returning from conflict zones. They will live alongside 292 families and receive business and skills training. Matthew Bell, Our Enterprise founder, says it is the first time in the UK that a major new housing development will be built with returning military personnel in mind. “I met a homeless guy in London who told me he was a veteran and showed me his service record. I was appalled that he had risked his life to serve his country and yet now faced life on the streets,” says Bell. “Hopefully this development will set the blueprint for others.”

Back in Bristol, CSBA’s aptly named New Hope Crescent officially opens this week. The charity hopes to roll out a similar self-build scheme in nearby Weston-super-Mare. West, who is studying human resources,says her hopes for the future are simple. “I just want to be normal, get a job, go to work and at the end of the day be able to say, right, I’m going home.”