Gary Neville's Manchester hotel for the homeless closes its doors

Fri Jan 29 00:51:26 GMT 2016

Gary Neville's hotel for the homeless closes its doors

Tearful scenes as last winter residents leave 
former Manchester United players building facing uncertain future
<http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/28/http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/28/gary-neville-praised-but-homeless-leave-footballers-hotel-for-uncertain-future#img-1>
The former Manchester stock exchange is being turned into an up
<http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/28/http://www.theguardian.com/profile/dianetaylor>Diane<http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/28/http://www.theguardian.com/profile/dianetaylor> 
Taylor  Thursday 28 January 2016 19.04 GMTLast 
modified on Thursday 28 January 201622.03 GMT

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/28/gary-neville-praised-but-homeless-leave-footballers-hotel-for-uncertain-future

The former Manchester United star 
<http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/28/http://www.theguardian.com/football/gary-neville>Gary 
Neville closed the doors of his hotel to homeless 
people, after allowing them to stay there 
rent-free with a package of support for more than three months.

The building in the centre of Manchester, which 
is to undergo extensive renovations before 
opening its doors to paying guests, was occupied 
in October by a group of squatters and housing 
activists called 
<http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/28/https://www.facebook.com/streetangelsUK>the 
Manchester Angels.

Instead of the response of other property owners 
 rushing to court to obtain an order to get the 
uninvited residents evicted  Neville and 
business partner Ryan Giggs told them they could 
stay, not just for a few days, but throughout the 
coldest months of winter. From my point of view, 
Im quite relaxed about this, Neville told an 
activist, Wesley Hall, at the time. He added that 
for the past 10 years he had offered support to 
homeless people he had seen on the street while 
walking through 
<http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/28/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/manchester>Manchester.

The homeless residents promised to keep the 
building clean and tidy and not to cause any 
damage to fixtures and fittings. In return 
Neville ensured that his unexpected guests were kept safe in his building.

He put in security and management teams at his 
own expense and provided regular meals from his 
Hotel Football to the new residents. It is 
estimated that he has spent up to £150,000 on 
keeping the project going during the winter 
months. Meanwhile, 
<http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/28/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/manchester>Manchester 
city council contracted the housing organisation 
Riverside to work with people in the building.
<http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/28/http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/28/gary-neville-praised-but-homeless-leave-footballers-hotel-for-uncertain-future#img-2>
Gary Neville was applauded for his attitude to the homeless, in

Nathan Newman, who volunteered at the project, 
said: That first night when all the homeless 
people in Manchester heard that Gary Neville was 
opening up his hotel to them every single 
persons face changed from miserable and downcast 
to pure elation. They knew that someone cared 
enough about them to do a thing like this and 
that meant a lot to them. There was a real surge of energy and optimism.

There were many tearful scenes on Thursday as the 
arrangement finally came to an end to allow major 
building work on the 23,000sq ft former stock 
exchange to begin. Those leaving with their small 
bags of belongings, hugged the security staff and 
promised to keep in touch. Many were effusive in 
their praise for Neville but many were uncertain 
about what will happen to them next.

Ash, an Iranian asylum seeker, was one of the 
first ones to enter the building and one of the 
last to leave. He said he had no accommodation to 
move on to. I have been getting panicked in the 
last couple of days about what is going to happen 
to me now. I have been able to sleep safely for 
the last three months because the security people are here.

When you are sleeping rough every noise scares 
you and wakes you up. I got into a routine of 
waking up every morning, going down to the 
kitchen for breakfast and having a chat with the 
security people. It was like living in a big 
family. Im really going to miss all that. But I 
have some really good people in my life now that 
werent there before, like Rob, the head of 
security. He used to buy us all coffee and cake 
every day. The stock exchange has been a lucky place for me.

The project has not been without its 
problems.There has been a considerable turnover 
of homeless people with some leaving and new ones 
arriving. At its height there were around 40 
homeless people staying there. In the early days 
there was a lot of idealism and optimism.

The fact that a wealthy football star and 
businessman had done something like this inspired 
many of the homeless people to dream that their 
miserable circumstances could change forever. But 
some complained that they were given inadequate 
support to help them tackle their many and 
complex problems including drug addiction and mental health problems.

Wesley Dove, another of the residents leaving on 
Thursday, said he was committed to supporting 
other homeless people and was keen to try to get 
a new model established to help homeless people 
where they can access everything under one roof  
accommodation, food, support, counselling, 
treatment for addiction and other healthcare.

Dove praised Neville for opening up his hotel to 
homeless people but said he was concerned that as 
a result homelessness had become temporarily less 
visible and so people had forgotten about what a 
major problem it is. The council opened up two 
night shelters but they will close in March. So 
many people will just be back on the streets. 
Some new squats have opened up in the city centre 
but they are dangerous places. The hostels are not good places.
[]

They can charge a higher rate of housing benefit 
because there is supposed to be support in there 
but we often dont get any. And we have to leave 
by 7.30am every morning and go back onto the 
streets. We need some real solutions to 
homelessness. If anyone would like to help set 
something up with all the services under one roof please get in touch with me.

The activists say that homelessness in Manchester 
has risen by 150% in recent years. According to 
the latest statistics published by Crisis, 
<http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/28/http://www.crisis.org.uk/data/files/publications/Homelessness%20briefing%202015%20EXTERNAL.pdf>280,000 
people in England approached councils last year 
seeking assistance, while 7,581 slept rough on 
the streets of London, a 16% increase on the 
previous year. The latest figures released by the 
<http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/28/http://www.emptyhomes.com/>Empty 
Homes Agency says that there are currently 
610,000 empty homes across the country.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mailman.gn.apc.org/mailman/private/diggers350/attachments/20160129/18e49899/attachment.html>