“I wouldn’t like to be anywhere else. They have really changed my life. I am getting there bit by bit.”

Debbie Melling is one of the hundreds of people who have been helped by YMCA Wirral over the last year. The Wirral branch of the organisation, which stands for Young Men’s Christian Association, is one of many across the world and has been formally based in Birkenhead since 1974.

Celebrating 150 years on the Wirral, the YMCA was also recently given the Freedom of the Borough by Wirral Council as a recognition for the work it does supporting people who are living on the streets or with no home to go to as well as those struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. The award was given unanimously with praise across the council.

Staff said over those 150 years the organisation had “adapted to what was needed in the community” and it was still doing that today. For some clients, staff said they will sometimes be the only ones who attend funerals and they offer a lifeline to people who “can feel like they are second class citizens.”

Debbie has been at the YMCA for several months living with her spaniel Cruella. After more than 30 years of doing drugs, she said the organisation gave her a way out. She said: “I didn’t have to do it no more. I was on the streets for three weeks. It’s horrible but it was hard enough.”

At one point she was sleeping in a shed. She said: “People would look past you and would look at you like you were nothing but there were a lot of people who were good. People would bring a coat or food for her (Cruella). It wasn’t about the money. It was just as long as she was okay.”

“A lot of people were so good but other people would say “get a job.” I can’t get a job if I have nowhere to live. Some people stick their noses up at you.”

After arriving at the YMCA, Debbie quickly settled in and has since gained two stone in weight, something she said “sounds silly but it’s a lot to me.” She added: “It’s changed my life so much. It keeps me going. Cruella loves everybody. I can’t say thanks enough. I don’t know why people don’t appreciate [the YMCA] more than they do. If you want help it’s here.

“I’ve got the future to look forward to, for me and Cruella big time. They have turned around everything for me. If I wasn’t here, if this wasn’t here, I wouldn’t have known where to start.”

The YMCA, which is based on Whetstone Lane in Birkenhead, offers 86 beds for those facing homelessness with 20 overnight emergency places during extreme weather. Over the course of 2023, it helped nearly 700 people.

However the organisation says it is facing a challenging job these days, with available affordbale homes at a low, waiting lists for diagnoses like ADHD closing, complex health issues among clients, as well as pressures helping asylum seekers and prisoners released early from jail. Clients like Debbie who are ready to move on are also stuck as some social landlords are reportedly hesitant to offer a place for someone homeless or with a dog.

Andy Topping now works as a support worker but was once a client at the YMCA where he went into rehab after 18 years on drugs. He said: “When I came out, I said right I am clean. For the first time in 18 years, I was like what do I do now? So I came back to the place that helped me get clean. I did feel lost. I knew I could come home to what is my family.

“Through my own experience, we also get to know these clients. These clients have gone from hostel to hostel to prison to prison and from prison to hostel. It’s trying to establish why that is happening. What is driving that and finding a way to break the cycle.”

Despite the work they do helping people, staff said some people give them a bad name. One even struggled to get a takeaway ordered to the address of the hostel.

Katie Sherry, who works as a mental health specialist team leader, said: “Our neighbours sometimes do not write nice things about us on social media but if we weren’t here imagine what the streets would be like.

“Before I worked here, I had no idea about the complex issues that homeless people come with. We are only one paycheck away from homelessness. You literally see this. People are unable to afford rent so they come here. Their mental health declines and they then start to abuse drugs.”

The YMCA is expecting to see further demand with a lot of new clients being released early from prison. The government in July announced emergency measures to tackle overcrowding in prisons is seeing some eligible prisoners being released.

Annie Johnson said she was told that between 70 and 100 people could be coming back to the Wirral with nowhere to go. Without the right support, staff questioned whether people were being given the chance to start again after jail.

Support manager Peter Cookson said: “I am sure that the prison service feels the same. They are full. Where do they put people? They are not even given the chance to rehabilitate in prison. If you have got a chronic substance misuse issue, where else do you go?”

Nigel Hughes, the YMCA’s CEO, said some of their clients were great people and praised staff for tackling “really serious complex issues” every day. He said: “The vast majority are here through no fault of their own. They are human beings. People forget they aren’t tins of bean on the shelf at the supermarket. They are human beings.

“We do it because we care and we want to make a difference. There’s a lot that the YMCA does behind the scenes. We could shout from the rooftops but we just get on and do it.

“For me, the people are the community. We have always always had a real passion to try and do the right things in Wirral, make it a better place, a safe place to live. It’s this lot just making that difference and if everyone got this, maybe I think it would be a much happier and nicer and kinder world to live in.