'It was so quick' The charity helping homeless people with tailored grants

When Halima's parents moved back to Somalia she was 19 and thought: "God forbid, I'm not going there. I'm living my best life." But the reality of living unmoored was not so positive.

Within months, Halima (not her real name) had joined the ranks of the hidden homeless, couch surfing with friends. As she had a roof over her head, albeit barely, the London borough she had lived in for 20 years didn't consider her vulnerable enough for social housing, yet her lack of a fixed address meant she couldn't sign on to universal credit.

"It's so easy to lose yourself as a person at that point," she said. "I feel like the government, the councils have failed young people especially there's no support for us, it's so hard to rent a place."

A homeless youth centre helped her secure a hotel job, but Halima had always dreamed of working in TV, and despite all the odds she secured a BBC internship, which she planned to do on top of night shifts. But when the pandemic hit, her internship moved online, a problem for Halima since she had no laptop.

That's when she was referred to the charity Greater Change, which immediately gave her money to buy one. When she landed her first TV production contract in Bristol, Greater Change swiftly funded the deposit and her first month's rent.

Thanks to that helping hand, she's now "sailing through the industry".