Hostels handbook

Homeless Link’s award-winning Emergency Accommodation for homeless people good practice companion is now available online FREE as the Hostels handbook.

The companion was first published in 2001, a collaborative research and best practice sharing project by the National Emergency Accommodation Project (NEAP). Now, with funding from the Housing Corporation we are delighted to be making an updated version of this resource available for easy consultation, free, on our website.

The companion was envisaged as an accessible guide to good practice that can be easily updated and as an internet resource we hope it will be just that. We have not re-printed the updated material in hard copy handbooks because it will be regularly updated and added to, and maintainining the content online allows for it to be an evolving and improving source of good practice. Hard copy handbooks are not available at the moment, but the website pages can be printed. See here more on printing from the handbooks

You can navigate through the five main parts of the handbook using the tabs above:

• Theory; background and local context to hostel services
• Creating a positive environment for staff and residents
• Managing risks and difficulties in hostels
• The journey, a consideration of the stages a person goes through from admission to temporary accommodation to move-on
• The needs of individuals, which contains resources for working effectively with people's individual support needs.

This website aims to present the revised and updated content of the original handbook in a format that is easily accessible, easy to navigate and easy to read. The hope is that staff and volunteers in hostels can make use of it on a regular or ad-hoc basis, reading through the sections and parts, or searching for a specific topic or question. The sample policies and case studies give material for staff and volunteers to take back to their teams to discuss when reviewing and implementing policy and good practice. All comments are welcome, on the content, and presentation of the website. Please email the project co-ordinator with any suggestions, comments or errors you come across or would like to raise.