We usually use this space to share good news – stories of people rebuilding their lives, moving into homes of their own, finding their feet again. This article is different. Not every story ends happily ever after, and we think it’s important to share this story.
Meet David
David first came into contact with services in 2019, seeking shelter during a cold winter. Such was the complexity of his needs and the depth of his distrust of the system, it took another three years before he felt safe enough to access accommodation. In 2022, he chose Jimmy’s.
With the dedication of our support workers, David was referred to our 451 service, where support could be tailored around him. He began to blossom. He engaged deeply with our team, worked with our housing staff, accepted support and started to find his footing.
Then life started pulling the rug out from under him, again and again.
Over the course of a single year, David was admitted to hospital 26 times. Time and again, he was discharged before he was medically or psychologically ready. Despite overwhelming medical evidence, his PIP applications were repeatedly refused. Then, one Christmas, he lost his mother to suicide. He found out through social media. He never got to say goodbye. That loss never left him.
Unfortunately, in March this year, while David was living in one of our modular homes, he was found unresponsive. He died from sepsis.
Not an anomaly
We want to be clear about something: David’s story is not a tragic outlier. His story, among too many others, represent a group of people in Cambridge for whom the current accommodation system – as committed and compassionate as those working within it are – simply does not work. It represents our reality on a regular basis. While Jimmy’s can provide housing, relationships and specialist homelessness support, we are not a hospital. We are not a mental health unit. We are not adult social care. When people need those services and cannot access them, they fall between every threshold, every eligibility criterion, every part of the system.
We’re sharing David’s story today because his death shouldn’t be quietly dismissed as ‘one of those things.’ It was preventable. David mattered. His story matters – and we’ll keep telling it until the services that should have been there for him are there for everyone who comes through our doors.