The Passage - London

dorothy S.

As a 62 year old street homeless disabled woman..Here are a few things I wish I had been told before I accessed this "service".
1: You will be expected to negotiate a steep flight of stairs down to the actual centre. There Is a lift but that is for the convenience of the staff rather than to prevent serious falls amongst the clientele.
2: While waiting in The admissions queue..You are likely to encounter people high on drink or drugs who wish to "rip your face off". When reporting this to staff or volunteers,You will be met with a shrug or a smile. Nothing will be done to ensure your personal safety.
3: Whilst waiting in The queue for a meal, don't be surprised when others barge in front of you whilst staff and volunteers look on unconcernedly. When you ask them to ensure fairness of treatment..They will tell you there's nothing They can do.
4: Electrical sockets are provided for the clients to plug on a phone charger. When said phone,the cable or the charger are stolen, the staff will decline to check the CCTV system to locate the thief.
Staff and volunteers operate on the "if your face fits" policy. Therefore They will provide help and support around the issues of homelessness, addiction, vocational training. Others like myself are simply ignored. Everyone who is on the streets is an individual with their unique story. The passage was not interested in me as a human being. Someone is going to be hurt or killed as the Passage is prepared to foster an environment which favours violent thieving men.
You have been warned.🙁

Ash J.

Amazing to work with and such a great organisation with the services they provide to people. I worked with this over the last couple of months to Host a Supper Club which the team were fantastic to work with! Beth was super to deal with and put a lot of work to make this event happen. The whole team were very supportive and ensured we worked together in making this event happen. All for a good cause and would love to work with them again. Thank you very much to Beth and The Passage team! Keep up the amazing work you lot do daily!

Robinski

Brilliant organization to serve those in need led by an extraordinary and selfless kitchen manager Claudette, very convenient and easy to use volunteer sign up portal, friendly and eager to help staff, ALL creating a positive and non judgmental environment to those we serve!

khadidia C.

I love volunteering at the Passage.I am treated like family.Its flexible and you get the opportunity to work with a very diverse group.

Vagabound S.

Sat 07 Oct 2023

The Passage, Victoria, London – making a living from the homeless for decades!

October in the UK is Black History Month – but not at the (back) Passage!

Where should I start with this lot?

Keyworkers frequently make appointments for so-called ‘assessments’ – but don’t turn up, don’t inform the client that they will not be able to keep the appointment, don’t contact the client to explain why or to arrange an alternative appointment.

These practices are symptomatic of the same smug, arrogant, ‘de haut en bas’, attitude adopted and displayed by many of the ‘which way is up’ clock-watching, time-serving, clueless, jobsworths who are employed to work in or for Passage Resource Centre – particularly the, largely absentee, Passage senior management, but also including some of the volunteers – who all seem think their time is more important than that of the homeless clients who use the services of this cowboy outfit
Wake-up call – it Isn’t!

The Passage’s blurb about its so-called ‘Vincentian values’ is a standing joke – amongst clients and staff – as are its hollow claims about ‘diversity’, ‘equality’ and ‘inclusion’.

A few token Black faces, all in the lower payment scales and organisational hierarchy, do not make a case for a claim to ‘equality’ and ‘inclusion’!

What is glaringly obvious, the ‘elephant in the room’ so to speak, is the absence of any Black faces amongst the ranks of Passage senior managers and trustees.

The Passage senior management is wall-to-wall white, or, to apply a quote made by Greg Dyke in relation to the BBC, The Passage senior management is ‘horribly white’ – in composition, operation, attitudes and outlook – and has always been so, from its inception to the present!

How does this manifest itself in the day-to-day operation of this outfit?

The white Passage staff, paid or unpaid, are remarkably tolerant of open displays of racism by some the white service users, particularly but not exclusively Polish service users, in terms of racist remarks, racist speech and racist behaviours – and it is obvious that some of the white staff, paid or unpaid, share the same racist views and demonstrate the same racist attitudes and racist behaviours to Black service users – albeit somewhat muted in terms of open display, a practice that the novelist Toni Morrison astutely described as ‘sly racism’.

It is notable that there are no posters decrying racism or declaiming The Passage’s abhorrence of and ‘zero tolerance’ towards open displays of racism – I wonder why?!

Oh! Here’s a clue: it’s current Patron is William – son of the adulterer and unelected Head of State Charles, former Prince of Wales.

Ever read or heard any stories about racism in the ‘royal’ family? Try talking to Megan and Harry!

The Passage and its ‘royal’ patron William – birds of a racist feather – flock together!

Razvan V.

Worst place ever. They bring all the homeless people in the area. They are on the streets around this place sleeping and drinking and doing drugs. Yelling at night on the streets here. Hope it will close one day and reopens on the moon so they can all go there.

Sayran M.

The most ridiculous place I have ever seen is here. I am homeless and today I went there for food and shower. Because I came from another area, they told me that you don't even have the right to come here for food and shower.

Sara S.

Here for 6 of last 12 months, didn't refer me as they should have and I ended up worse off than at the start with service staff being ignorant, non coperative, lazy and greedy.

Taking lots of information and time to solve 1 part of a multitude of complex failures then humiliating you for thier provision of less than dignified help and only solving part of 1 issue.

In a nutshell, westminister advertise help with every aspect of homelessness but even with circumstances as applicable as mine they efficiently, empathetically, confidentially or respectfully solved very little to nothing.

If you are genuinely ill or traumatised expect the staff to make things more difficult or take so much time that you loose what you are entitled to. If this is how the council/s staff operate, no wonder the PM and the MOL can't get the country in good order.