Former hostage Waite to launch appeal for new homeless project

Mr Waite, the former Archbishop of Canterbury’s special envoy and president of Emmaus UK, will launch a £3m appeal for the new facility.

A group headed by former council leader Pat Doyle has been working for four years on the scheme which will provide beds and jobs for 30 people. They have been gifted land by Hull Council on Lockwood Street, in the Wincolmlee area of the city, close to Barmston Drain.

No drugs or alcohol are allowed in the communities, which make their money from social enterprises, like recycling and refurbishing furniture, and offer a supportive “family” environment where everyone has their part to play.

Project manager Helen McGill said: “Emmaus communities are radically different from hostels. The Emmaus approach is very much where people come into a community. They sign off benefits and work in an Emmaus business. It enables people to work and regain their dignity.

“It is more of a second stage provision – you can’t just knock on the door and come off the street.

“That is because it’s a huge ask for people to come off benefits; people have to be further along the road so they are able to work 40 hours a week which is part of the Emmaus ethos.”

Some of the money will come from donors and charitable trusts, some from partner Chevin Housing Group and some from statutory sources.

Today, the first day of a two-day visit, Mr Waite will share a buffet lunch with supporters. In the evening he will attend a drinks reception hosted by the Lord Mayor Colin Inglis. Tomorrow he will formally open the Emmaus Hull shop at 193, Newland Avenue.

Mrs McGill said: “We are working closely with all the other providers Hull Homeless and Rootless Project and the Salvation Army because we complement existing services.

“Yes it is a daunting target, but we are confident that we can hit it.

“It’s worth remembering that 20 other Emmaus groups have been down this road and now operate communities.

“The great thing about Emmaus is that although they need sums of capital to build they become self-financing in five years and are not grant dependent after that.”

The project follows a well-established model – the first community was set up in 1949 in France and there are now 20 Emmaus communities in the UK, with 14 others in development. This year it is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and now has almost 500 bed spaces.

Mr Waite was Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie’s Assistant for Anglican Communion Affairs in the 1980s.

As an envoy for the Church of England, he travelled to Lebanon to try to secure the release of four hostages including journalist John McCarthy, when he too was held hostage.

He has said “hope” kept him going through the four years of solitary captivity and it is hope which inspires his charity work.

Mr Waite, who has been involved with Emmaus since 1992, said: “In this the 20th anniversary year of Emmaus I feel very proud of all that the movement has achieved.

“It is an organisation like no other in the way that it restores in people who have been marginalised a sense of their own worth and potential.

“It is no exaggeration to say that Emmaus changes lives.

“Unfortunately I don’t see homelessness and poverty ending any time soon and there is a greater need than ever for places like Emmaus to catch those that fall through the net.”

Different way to lend a hand

Director/trustee Brian Gilliland says Emmaus is “an altogether different way to help homeless people”.

He said: “People aren’t just given a hand up, they’re presented with a challenge, to help other people and to be of use to society rather than a problem for it. It works. We hope that Emmaus Hull will become something that everybody in Hull can point at and say: ’We did that’, and be really proud of it.”