Nikita Melnikovs, 21
How one man's search for a better education left him living on the streets
“The lowest point was when I wanted to commit suicide. It happened on the Itchen Bridge. I don’t want anyone to go through the same thing as I did. Because I survived the realist psychological hell, and if someone else will go through this, only then will they understand what kind of pain I had to go through. It was absolutely horrible”
Nikita Melnikovs is just 21 years old yet he has already gone through what most of us would never go through in a lifetime. Just 6 months ago he was living on the streets – desperate, penniless, helpless.
He moved to the UK in the hope of a better future, but things started to go downhill very fast.
“My first intention arriving in England was to study but I had to pay for my rent and help out my parents. I didn’t earn much and it started to become very stressful. This was the moment I knew I would fail my course.”
Nikita found himself in a tough situation. Helping his parents by sending money home and working to support himself didn’t leave much time to concentrate on his studies. He started falling behind and failed his first year.
“This was the most problematic point. I think this is where it all started.”
In July 2015 he received the results he had been dreading, he failed the course. A few months later he was told he could repeat the year, however at this point he already lost the room he had been renting.
“I asked the university for help but they requested a lot of money which I couldn’t afford. Then I asked all of my friends and acquaintances, and I just started couch surfing. Eventually I wasn’t able to stay at other people’s houses anymore. I was trying really hard to find proper accommodation.”
After months of continuous efforts to find a place to stay, Nikita soon found himself sleeping on the cold floor of the university’s library.
“I literally slept under the desk with a sleeping bag. Sometimes I was successful with that but other times the security was waking me up saying if I fall asleep again they will have to ask me to leave.”
Even though the library provided him a temporary shelter, as Easter holidays approached he was forced to look elsewhere. With no money or means to support himself Nikita had no alternative but to start sleeping rough.
He became one of 13 young people living on the streets of Southampton. A Freedom of Information request to Southampton City Council revealed that during the last 6 months more than a dozen under 25’s spent at least one night on the streets. But one night for Nikita became two nights, a week and soon turned into 2 months with nowhere to go.
“I started sleeping in a car park and I was getting desperate for a place to stay. This was the point when I went to the Itchen Bridge. Fortunately, I remembered the phone number of Samaritans, so I called them and said ‘I can’t do it, I give up’. And they persuaded me to live, thankfully.”
Nikita was so ashamed of his situation that he decided not to tell his parents.
“I wasn’t able to tell them the truth at the time, I felt like I would disappoint them. I only managed to tell them recently. I had to confess to my mum, telling her what I went through. She asked me why didn’t I tell her before, and I explained to her that I didn’t want her to give up on me. She told me to tell her straight away if anything similar ever happens again.”
Southampton offers a variety of homeless shelters and services, some specialising in youth homelessness. And with the support of No Limits, Nikita’s journey finally started to take a turn for the better.
“When they saw me they described me as a half dead person. My skin was pale, I was shaking and the bags under my eyes were almost black.”
After explaining his situation to No Limits, the task of getting Nikita off the streets began immediately. The charity provided him with food, hygiene products and a sleeping bag to make his last few days on the streets as comfortable as possible in the situation.
No Limits offers a wide variety of services to young people including Floating Support services and Access to Tenancy Courses as well as providing them with advice, information and counselling across Southampton.
Ben Cardy, a caseworker at No Limits explained that their primary method of helping is by referring young people into dedicated Young People’s Accommodation services in Southampton, the main providers being Chapter 1 and YMCA.
“We also work with young people to get them into the private rented sector however, this is becoming increasingly difficult due to landlords in Southampton simply unwilling to accept tenants on housing benefits.”
With the huge gap between the cost of renting in Southampton and the amount of housing benefit that the Local Authority will pay there is no surprise youngsters are struggling to keep a roof over their heads. The average price of a one-bedroom flat costs £619 per month, and single rooms averaging around £592, while local housing allowance only permits single, under 35 year olds £67.50 a week in benefit.
Ben tells me: “This sum is vastly inadequate in Southampton, even for just a rented bedroom in a shared house. Getting a deposit is another problem altogether.”
Since April 1st 2016 No Limits had 89 homeless people who applied, in the same time scale last year, 86 applications were sent.
“I can have anywhere between 5 and 30 people on my caseload at any given time. These primarily consist of more complex cases such as people who are pregnant, suffer from some mental or physical disability, have complex immigration issues, are aged 16/17 or there is any other reason that may complicate the issue where specialist knowledge is required.”
Thankfully for Nikita, just two weeks after No Limits intervened, he received an invitation to meet with Chapter 1, a charity providing accommodation and advice to vulnerable people. He had to go through risk assessments, and verify who he was but a week later he finally received a call to say the house was ready.
“They called me and told me the address to go to. When I got there, we took a seat, did all the paperwork and they said ‘welcome home’. I almost have a tear even now, it was a beautiful moment. I then just went to sleep straight away and slept for 15 hours. As soon as I woke up I went to No Limits and said to them, ‘I am no longer homeless, thank you’. They then told me I’ve done a great a job and gave me a round of applause.”
Nikita lives at that address to this day. Supported accommodation is a homelessness prevention project providing accommodation and further help to vulnerable people including the homeless, people fleeing domestic violence, or those with mental health, alcohol or drug problems.
“I have a roof over my head, I have dreams, I have ambitions. I know what I want to do in the future. I have friends, I have people I can talk to. I have opportunities and I will do my best to follow my dreams. And this is something I am really happy about.
Nikita still has a long journey ahead, but he has come so far since last September. He is currently applying to become a member of Youth Homeless Parliament where he will be working on helping other young people in need. He feels he turned his life around so drastically that there’s only one way to go now - up.
“And to those who may read this, if you need help, ask for it. Ask your parents, ask your friends, ask everyone you can. And if you are young, and at risk of becoming homeless, talk to No Limits, they will help.”
Samaritans No Limits
11 College Place, London Road, 13 High Street,
Southampton, Southampton
Hampshire, SO15 2FE Hampshire, SO14 2DF
T: 023 8063 2888 T: 02380 224 224
