Focus 4 Hope, Brighouse: Yorkshire charity sees high rise in young women on streets due to cost of living crisis

CEO and founder, Louise Reed, was inspired to set up the Brighouse-based charity in 2016 after a picture of a young boy’s body washed up on a beach in Kos struck a chord with her.

The charity hosts homeless feeds in Leeds City Centre, providing hygiene packs to people every two weeks across West Yorkshire.

It began as a community group of 12 volunteers but it has seen a significant impact on people needing its services since the first lockdown in March 2020. In 2023, Focus 4 Hope helped around 200 homeless people in Leeds and Halifax and 1,300 people collectively across the region.

“It’s getting worse, I’ll be honest,” she said.

“When Covid hit, we all [group of charities] worked really closely to help get people off the streets, so we had them in emergency accommodation in three hotels.

“Whilst they were living there, they had the address and we got them IDs, but they can’t move forward with their life without having a fixed abode and it’s a catch 22 situation; we used that time really well to help them as much as we could.

“Obviously, at the end of Covid, they all got thrown out of the hotels, there were 221 of them that were originally housed in hotels and they tried to house as many people in emergency and permanent accommodation.

“We were trying to engage with lots of different landlords because there were empty houses and people on the streets. We engaged with them to try and get them to open up their properties for the homeless.”

However, it wasn’t just Covid that resulted in an increase of people left homeless; since late 2021, the rising cost of living expenses also took a toll on households and individuals.

“It’s the cost of living crisis that is really affecting people. We’re seeing a lot of new faces where people just can’t pay the bills,” she said.

“When I think about when we first started seven years ago, you were just two steps away from being homeless. Genuinely now, it’s one; you can’t pay your rent.

“This winter has been really tough for so many people; we’re seeing a lot more young women on the streets as well which is never nice to see.

“It’s really hard. It shouldn’t be happening in this day and age, should it? We shouldn’t have this going on. There’s just no light at the end of the tunnel, I don’t know when this is ever going to get better.”

Ms Reed also says that there is a stigma attached to homelessness and that this needs to change.

“I remember when I started, some friends and family were like: ‘what do you want to do that for? They’re all druggies, they’re all alcoholics’ - they are not. They’re lovely people who can just be down on their luck; it could be from a marriage breakdown, they could have had their business go under.

“There are so many reasons that people can fall into homelessness. What I really work hard on is educating people, trying to get them to see that. A lot of people ask: ‘What is the best thing to do for the homeless? Do I give them money, do I not give them money?’ Yes, unfortunately there are what we call ‘professional beggars’ on the streets; it’s quite lucrative, some people can earn £250 a day on the streets. There are gangs out there that do that.

“That’s why I say to people don’t give them your money; give them your time, give them a smile, give them coffee. Have a little chat, ask them how they are doing because they get treated so poorly on the streets.”

Ms Reed said that due to the level of violence against the homeless, volunteers at the charity encourage them to get out of the city centre before pubs and clubs shut to prevent them from being targeted.

“We have had some horrendous attacks on them including being set alight in a sleeping bag while they’re asleep,” she said.

“They have been urinated on, a guy had been stabbed, he was fast asleep - it was so close as [the knife] went through his mouth and it just missed his main artery, so he could have died instantly.

“Really violent, horrific attacks where drunk people just pray on the vulnerable; it’s absolutely heartbreaking, these are people.”

Ms Reed has called on the government to make necessary changes to improve the current state of the country.

“The country is in absolute crisis and I genuinely feel a lot of it is down to the government’s decisions and the powers that be that caused all of this,” she said.

“We as charities are left to pick up the pieces and do all the hard work. Funding has gotten much harder. We’ve worked all weekend fundraising, we’ve got the next four weekends doing the same just to try and meet the needs.

“[The government] needs to really help people engage; we find the most deprived areas are the hardest hit and have had a lot of funding slashed.

“We need to put more effort into getting teenagers off the streets, get them away from crime and to give charities like ours more money so that we can help more and do more. We need a new government.

“I also want to say thanks to all our team of volunteers who all work around the clock and we cannot do what we do without this team of volunteers.

“Keep on supporting us; like and share our posts across our social media channels, donate money, food, clothing, just keep supporting us to help support others.”