Festive ‘road map out of Covid’ for Harrogate homeless charity

A remarkable partnership between Harrogate’s leading homelessness charity and a church with a national reputation for hosting classical music is bringing good news on the subject this Christmas.

Harrogate Homeless Project’s work is to benefit from a £37,500 grant from the National Lottery’s Coronavirus Community Support Fund recently handed to the Wesley Centre - the venue which first helped spawn the charity nearly 30 years ago.

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The strict social distancing rules introduced last March have impacted greatly on how the Harrogate Homeless Project has operated in 2020.

Covid has certainly impacted on this Harrogate charity’s services in an unprecedented manner.

The new grant will allow Wesley Centre - famous for its concert recitals - as well as being a place of worship, to lease a much larger space to the Harrogate Homeless Project so that the charity can provide even greater care in a safe way for all its clients.

To Liz Hancock, chief executive of Harrogate Homeless Project, this sudden stroke of good fortune is a bright light at the end of a Covid tunnel.

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She said: “It’s great news. We’ve had queues of people outside our Springboard Day Centre here at times this year but we’ve only been able to allow one person in at a time.

“Having all of the Wesley Centre’s lower hall will mean no matter how long the pandemic goes on for, we will be able to handle it.

“It’s our road map out of the problems of Covid.”

Harrogate Homeless Project had wanted to be in its new home in time for Christmas but this hard-working charity has gotten used to dealing with a near tidal wave of frustrations in the last nine months during the pandemic.

Other community groups such as Resurrected Bites have stepped in to help, as well as St Peter’s Church which is offering a hot breakfast and a tea time takeaway to people on the streets.

Covid has had a “massive impact” on how the charity works... and in almost every single way possible.

Every service HHP provides has had to be made Covid safe and secure to protect its clients and staff in an environment where the other agencies it traditionally works with have also had to do exactly the same.

What’s more, the people they do so much to support - the rough sleepers and homeless - face challenges in their own life skills which are easily exacerbated by any additional hurdles to overcome, such as Covid rules.

Liz Hancock said she was proud of how her team had coped and delighted that HHP had kept its lifeline for rough sleepers operating.

She said: “The introduction of the first lockdown in March was the worst time.

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“We had some really big fundamentals to deal with and had to find different ways of working from top to bottom almost overnight.

“This was all in the context of all the other statutory services suddenly moving to working from home. We had to switch to contacting everyone by phone but a lot of our clients are vulnerable people who don’t or can’t live their lives through digital means. We even had to find some of them phones to use.”

With the support of Harrogate Borough Council, HHP maintained the core of its services with its staff working long hours.

Even though only two clients were allowed to enter HHP’s Springboard Centre at Wesley Centre at any one time and no new residents were admitted to its hostel on Bower Road, the charity has still offered a shower, a weekly GPs clinic, a laundry service and served up pre-made meals.

Still, the difference in social contact is keenly felt by all.

Liz said: “I’m delighted to say that everyone has still been able to access support but they haven’t been able to come in for their lunch or a cup of coffee which is normally when they open up and you get to know about their lives and their problems.”

The National Lottery grant will make a world of difference.

The new larger premises will see more rough sleepers helped more quickly and will allow the return of hot meals in the new, bigger kitchen.

Having been forced to do a little less a lot more intensely, Harrogate Homeless Project is looking forward to expanding what it does in a way that people so desperately need in the depths of winter.

Liz Hancock added: “The relaxation of lockdown at the start of the month allowed us to start taking in new clients at Bower Road, though on a reduced capacity.

“The new facilities at Wesley Centre are going to make it easier to help more people and give them one-to-one attention again in a safe way. It’s so exciting. It means our clients will stop feeling so isolated which is one of the most important things of all.”

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How to help HHP in this challenging year

Harrogate Homeless Project says it has been “humbled” by the support it has received from the community during this difficult year.

But that does not mean the charity doesn’t need that support to continue in 2021.

HHP’s chair of trustees John Harris said: “We are humbled to have received such wonderful support from the local community. It has been a challenging year for our vulnerable clients who have struggled with the effects of Covid-19 on their lifestyles and we have worked very hard to support them during this difficult time.

“Like many small charities, we have had to adapt our ways of working and redesign our service delivery to survive an uncertain climate.”

Chief executive Liz Hancock said, although HHP has done well this year in the circumstances, the underlying fact that its staff costs have remained the same while fundraising events have all had to be cancelled because of the pandemic is more worrying. With strict Covid rules in place, giving donations in kind such as food parcels or clothes may not be the best approach from the public at the moment.

The best way to support HHP’s work is to donate money either via the special Street Aid window which remains operational and set up in the Marks & Spencer window, or by going to the Just Giving page at: www.harrogate-homeless-project.org.uk/donating or its Just Giving Page