Citadel Neath Port Talbot case study
April 1, 2026
K was referred to Citadel by Housing Options following a No Fault Eviction Notice as her Landlord had gone into prison. K was happily living in her home with her 3 children when she received the eviction notice.
She was very shocked and distraught and my first contact with her was a very distressing call where she was beside herself sobbing on the phone, saying she did not know what she was going to do.
She contacted Housing Options and she was referred to Citadel and we immediately met with her to offer her and her family our help & support. The 3 children were all school age and her son was about to embark on his GCSE’s which was worrying her a great deal, especially how the fragility of their home situation would effect his studying and exams. K works in a school and her family are her everything. The family also had a dog, and she took the very difficult situation to re-home the dog as she knew that it would be more difficult to obtain accommodation with a pet. She was matched with a volunteer and Citadel started supporting her. They both exchanged telephone numbers & the volunteer started supporting her.
Citadel first establish what matters to the person we are supporting, as we are person led and what matters to the person is our priority. K’s immediate priority was finding a home for her & her children. K was extremely worried about the whole situation, where her furniture would go / how would the children be / how would they carry on with their schooling / where would she be placed etc etc Many questions and a period of uncertaintly took its toll on K and affected her Mental Health. Before she was offered interim accommodation, K was placed in several Hotels and Holiday Homes and there were a number of occassions where she would not know from one day to the next where she would be staying. She would sit in her car & cry. She often phoned our volunteer who was able to listen to her concerns and reassure her that Citadel would help & support her every step of the way. Citadel helped to organise storage for her furniture and Citadel also managed to obtain a number of items for her `interim home’ where she was finally placed, as all her main kitchen & household items were in storage. When she was finally placed into interim accommodation, she felt a little more settled and felt safe.
Citadel supported her in talking to Housing Options and also helped with sorting her benefits, helping her with completion for forms and supporting her with phonecalls to the DWP & also arranging appointments with Welfare Rights. Finding a home was her main focus and the Citadel volunteer supported K to bid for properties weekly and also helped her look out for private rentals also. K
The Citadel volunteer would meet with K weekly and listen to her sharing her feelings, thoughts and worries, reassuring her and offering support & advice.
K was successfully matched with a property after a few months and Citadel were able to help & support her with her move, and were able to reassure her along the way. We managed to obtain a number of items for her new home through our Citadel WhatsApp group.
K is now settled in her new home with her children and she has sent several messages to myself & our wonderful volunteer thanking us for all of our help & support in what was the `worst time of her life’ (Her quote on a text message she has sent).
One of her text messages says : –
‘Without the help and support of Citadel I would have struggled a lot more and meeting Mandy & Julie has really boosted my mental health as I felt I had no-one and nowhere to go, I will be forever grateful’
