Safe, Supported, Respected: Inside Flax Foyer’s Work with Homeless Young People in Belfast

On 21 July, Mark Baillie, Leeanne O’Hara and I visited Flax Foyer in North Belfast.

Homeless Connect visits member organisations throughout the summer months. It’s a chance to hear directly from those on the ground about the issues they face day to day, and to celebrate the successes of projects and the brilliant work our members are doing right across Northern Ireland.

Flax Foyer is a project of NB Housing. It offers 37 self-contained flats, supporting young people aged 18 to 25 who are experiencing homelessness. Residents are supported to develop skills for independent living and to maintain their accommodation, while being encouraged to engage in local education and employment opportunities.

A Warm Welcome

The building itself was easy to find but discreet, and upon entering I was struck by how welcoming everyone was. That, and the smell of freshly baked cookies coming from the kitchen.

We were brought through to a bright room decorated with art created by the residents. Through the window, a vibrant splash of colour in the garden came from flowers the residents had planted themselves.

An NB Housing pop-up display caught my eye. Three words stood out: Safe. Supported. Respected. We went on to learn that residents truly felt this way about Flax Foyer.

Meeting the Team

Kia Hellens (Business Improvement Manager), Nuala McCallum (Foyer Manager) and Heather Burns (Support Worker) welcomed us and shared a little about their backgrounds and why they chose to work in the housing sector. Their dedication and passion for working with young people was clear.

We discussed the challenges around recruitment. Despite these, Nuala is proud to lead a dedicated and experienced team. We also explored the importance of long-term preventative work, engaging with young people before they reach the Foyer to help reduce their level of need.

Building Strong Partnerships

Nuala spoke about the value of networking with other services and agencies, and of building solid relationships with both staff and residents. Joanne from DAISY visits weekly to offer drug counselling, and Eamonn from the Aspire Project (CRJ) is on hand whenever extra support is needed.

Flax Foyer works closely with a wide network of organisations to ensure every young person gets the specific support they need, including:

• Ardoyne Association
• Ardoyne Youth Enterprises
• Northern Ireland Youth Forum
• Extern
• Women’s Aid
• Action Mental Health
• CANS

Each resident has a support plan tailored to their needs. A strength-based assessment on arrival identifies these needs, and residents are paired with a suitable keyworker to set and achieve goals, maximising the impact of the support available.

Supporting the Journey Beyond the Foyer

Residents who move on often stay in touch and visit. This helps sustain not only relationships but tenancies too. If a young person feels confident and supported in their own home, they’re more likely to sustain that tenancy successfully. When residents move on to permanent accommodation, they continue to engage with their support worker, helping to smooth the transition.

Nuala emphasised the importance of a collaborative approach and strong relationships with NIHE and Social Services, as everyone has a role to play in a young person’s journey out of homelessness.

Meeting the Residents

Once the cookies were in the oven, the residents joined us, and the room filled with a lovely atmosphere of chat and laughter. You could feel the sense of belonging and acceptance in the room, the kind of trust and respect that takes consistency, balance and time to build.

Staff encourage and support residents to engage in education and employment opportunities. One resident told us about a youth training course they had just completed. They recognised that, as a role model to younger people, they had a responsibility to make positive choices, an ethos that seemed to ripple through the whole group. They were interested in the lived experience role, and I encouraged them to explore it further.

Over lunch, I spoke to Heather about her career at Flax Foyer and her commitment to supporting young people. An incredibly dedicated member of staff, she has clearly invested in the wellbeing of the young people she supports. Compassionate and loyal, Heather helps ease daily stresses and understands the difficulties young people face today. The mutual respect between her and the residents was obvious as they laughed and joked together.

Leaving Flax Foyer

It was soon time to go, back to the office and the challenges of the day to day, back to the harsh realities of our housing system, to increasing need and inadequate responses.

Yet for all of us, it was impossible not to feel uplifted by the experience of meeting the team and residents at Flax Foyer. We left knowing these young people are being supported in the best possible way by a highly competent, dedicated staff team.

Nikki McConville, Lived Experience Coordinator