Agenda item

The Hope Centre was founded in 1974 as Northampton Soup kitchen and it has grown substantially over 40 years. The name was changed to Hope Centre in 2006 and have been based in Oasis House for four years. There are 48 bedsits and there are a number of other services/agencies in Oasis house. These include NAASH  (Northampton Association for the Accommodation of the Single Homeless), Northampton Partnership Homes, medical services etc.  

The ethos of the organisation is “every person matters.”

There are many reasons of how people become homeless – often drug and alcohol addiction is a key factor although this is not always the main cause.

There are many causes of homelessness and it can be a series of events eg – job loss, rent arrears, health, lack of family stability, traumatic childhood experiences etc. eg neglect, abuse.

The average life expectancy of a rough sleeper is 47 years. For every one person on the street, there are 100 in hostels. The Hope Centre sees approx. 120 people every day and numbers are increasing. Over 30% of new registrations are people aged under 25.

There is a philosophy at the Hope Centre that we have to give a hand up rather than a handout. The aim is get people back into a decent lifestyle and to help them budget. The Centre provides free tea and coffee but charge small amount for food. It also handouts free underwear and provides free showers.

There are workshop activities and links with other services – eg drug and alcohol services.  Would like to see people back in employment and working with businesses. So far four clients are working for Coca Cola in Brackmills and in What Daisy Does.

There is also a social enterprise workshop where clients can refurbish tools and sell them. This is to help reduce reliance on the Hope Centre.

The Hope Centre targets fundraising are £650k. Research shows that to help a homeless person would cost £120K per year. So this is a huge saving. Fundraising efforts including a sleep out which raised £38k. Other efforts include abseil, bike rides.

Sue invited forum members to visit.

TM: Shame that in 21^st century that there is a break down in society. Do you get people out of town?

SW: Not many. Population of Hope Centre reflects population of Northampton. Predominantly white British people. There is a growing number of Eastern European people. 80% male and 20% female.

AT: There are more prostitutes in buildings and there are drug busts. What support is there for these people?

SW: NAASH deals with this. Normally they are assigned a key worker.

JFS: A big thank you for your work.

DH: There is a lack of affordable housing. We are the 7^th richest country in the world and we can’t look after our own people. We need to build more social housing.

Cllr K: The volunteers are doing a great job at the Hope Centre and would like to continue to support this cause.