Guernsey man slept on sofas for five months after becoming homeless

A man who spent five months homeless during the coronavirus pandemic said he felt "shame" after being evicted.

Tian Sweet, 24, from Guernsey, slept on friends' sofas after his work hours were cut by a business struggling to recover from coronavirus lockdown.

"My mental health dipped, I almost lost enthusiasm to do anything," he said.

Mr Sweet said the view "homelessness doesn't exist" in the island was "completely false" and he knows someone who has been homeless for two years.

His problems began when his hours in a shop were cut from 40 a week to eight, which he could "barely live on".

Mr Sweet was able to survive for about a month on savings, but was later evicted after being unable to pay rent and his worsening situation became a "bit of a spiral".

He said: "I didn't have a bedroom, I didn't have basic cooking essentials. Basically I was living on foods you can pick up and just eat on the go."

Mr Sweet found a new job in a cafe shortly after losing his home and stayed with one set of friends for five weeks during the island's latest lockdown.

He was able to move into a new flat on Monday - a process he said took months because of lockdown and the difficulty of finding an affordable place to live in the island.

Mr Sweet added people believe homelessness is non-existent in Guernsey, because it is rarely an "obvious and in your face" issue with people visibly sleeping rough or someone "on the street who's asking for change or help".

He said for many people forced to sofa surf, there was a desire to keep their struggles "quiet".

"You don't want to tell people that you don't have your own place, that you're living on a sofa and someone else is paying the rent and you have to help out."

He said while there was help available for people it was "not enough" to prevent or alleviate the precarious living situation many islanders find themselves in.

Kerry Ciotti, CEO of Guernsey's Citizen's Advice Bureau, said sofa surfing was a "much bigger issue than people realise" and there is a shortage of affordable accommodation, exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

She said: "It's a very worrying trend that we're seeing at the moment and I think help is needed."

Peter Roffey, President of the Committee for Employment and Social Security, said the States of Guernsey was in the process of "broadening" its housing strategy to address a "glaring gap" in emergency housing provision.

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