About

Shelter helps people like Shaiso*.

How would you cope if you lost your job and your home at the same time? This was the situation Shaiso found herself in.

Last year, Shaiso was happily working as a Meeting and Events Manager and Wedding Coordinator at a hotel. It was a pressurised job, but she enjoyed the work and it gave her a steady income – plus accommodation was included. Then the pandemic started to bite and everything changed. Her manager explained that the hotel was having to close for a few months and that some people would be let go. Unfortunately, Shaiso was one of those people. Because her accommodation was linked to her job and she couldn’t be furloughed, Shaiso found herself in a terrifying position. Where was she going to live? Panic started to set in. Shaiso tried everything she could to fix her problem. She called the council, but they said, because she hadn’t lived in the area long enough, they couldn’t help her. Then someone suggested that she call Shelter. And that’s when Shaiso connected with Lily. Lily is one of our Advice Support and Guidance workers and was able to expertly assess Shaiso’s options and call the council on her behalf. To Shaiso’s disbelief, she got a call back from the council that same day and was immediately offered temporary accommodation, starting the next day. Shaiso was stunned. She said: “From 15 November to 1 December, I’d been calling the Council and trying to sort it out myself and had got nowhere. Literally in a day, Lily had somewhere for me. She was really brilliant.”