Foundation Cygnet House Hostel

"Staff are great but residents are a spoon short of stupid"

"Hostel for the homeless under age 25"

"Early in my stay I had just come of the streets I was weak and the most vulnerable I had ever been in my life and when I was robbed and physically abused by the other residents the staff members chose to always be bias in there favour making me feel really unsafe. Young blonde staff member maybe mid to late twenties she arrived around 4 months before I left don't know her name I cant remember I don't know if she still works there or not but she had tantrums like a child always getting offended by everything I would say no professionalism. I found this irritating and it made me want to leave. She clearly didn't like me anything I would say offended her whether that would be a concern I had about something or if me and a couple other staff members were having harmless banter across the room (which we did often a year prior to her arrival) she would always go of her head it wasn't professional from someone who is supposed to support people it just had the opposite effect. She and a couple other staff members also blamed me when a family member expressed concerns about the bullying and the moving on to my own apartment situations the staff took it personal and blamed me instead of listening to my family members concerns seeing it as an insult which is unprofessional again and making my stay more isolating and stressful. The cooking volunteer had a bit of an attitude too. I felt abandoned by the staff when it was my turn to leave they helped me move my stuff but then took off running soon as I arrived at my new apartment which their not supposed to do. Most of the staff are okay people (except the one I ranted about) they just don't know how to do their jobs the laziness and care for the residents and the childish behaviours is a massive problem. I was really vulnerable when I was in here and had a lot of problems still do have a lot of problems I didn't get the support I needed, living in here for me was rough. Theres also a lack of activity problem they dont have a wide enough variety of day trips or opportunities for young people to go and get qualifications or work experience in areas they take interest in. Residents end up feeling isolated and stressed for this. The hygiene is also disgusting some residents are foul and don't know the concept of clean. If these are the places people have to live in after coming of the streets to ultimately get their own place I can see why people chose no to do it these places are full of drugs, theft, physical abuse, bad hygiene and unwanted trespassers like drug addict chavs and aggressive travellers picking fights and dealing drugs late at night knocking on windows theres no security you feel unsafe someone even broke the door down once and I the coward I am stood there crapping myself at this six foot guy throwing punches at this other person and the staff member didn't even care. I give a two star instead of one because most the staff are still nice and they still did nice gestures like giving us free food and giving us stuff to keep clean with like toothpaste and shower gel stuff like that, they also gave me lifts sometimes which was also decent and one of the volunteers who took me out for a drink sometimes was really friendly but the feeling of security isn't there, its isolating, depressing, dirty, the staff can be very childish and that's my rant."