Homelessness could be at an end in Liverpool after a millionaire hotelier, once on the brink of homeless himself, started a wave of charity that has shook the city into action.
In the space of just six days, 82 homeless people have left the streets of Liverpool to take shelter in Kingsway House, a building in the city’s business district owned by hotel firm Signature Living.
The project began on Thursday last week when Lawrence Kenwright, the founder of the business, snapped, thinking the amount of homeless people out in the cold shamed our society.
As temperatures dropped below zero, homeless from across the city were invited to a warm, welcoming environment staffed by volunteers and workers from Signature Living. People were given hot meals, sleeping bags, blankets and showers.
Representatives for Liverpool City Council attempted to shut the facility down, but on seeing the wave of public goodwill towards the project, decided to open their own shelter for the homeless.
Official estimates say there are 21 homeless people in Liverpool. But anyone who lives in the city will be able to count that number on Bold Street alone. Famed for fancy restaurants, the street is lined with quiet, desolate-looking homeless people wrapped in whatever blankets they can find.
At Kingsway House, demand was so great that a second floor of the building has been opened up to the homeless, with separate areas for homeless people with dogs, while there are also separate rooms so that women feel safe. Volunteers were touched when a homeless man gave up his pillow so that his dog could be comfortable.
Donations have flooded in from members of the public, with tins of food and clothing coming in by the crate-load.
The building’s car park has reopened as a pay-what-you-wish facility to raise money towards the project, and there’s a car wash service staffed by homeless individuals, many of whom have been helping other homeless people less capable than themselves.
Lawrence Kenwright said: “It is easy for wealthy people to shut themselves off from the rest of society. At work, they go from meeting to meeting with people just like them. They go for dinner at nice restaurants. They step over people like the ones we’re helping as they spend hundreds in the shops for Christmas. They try not to look them in the eye.
“It is disgraceful. We need to help those who have nothing. Because otherwise, what does it say about us as people?
“I made a fortune in the early 00s, but I lost everything in the recession. I had no home, and had to rely on friends and family. Had I not had incredible friends and family, I’d have been on the streets. The experience will never leave me, and when I saw homeless people on the streets in the cold, frankly I had had enough.
“The people of Liverpool have been incredible in their support for this project. I want Liverpool to be the first city to end homelessness, but Signature Living wants to take this project nationwide.”
Kingsway House will be open until the end of February, when Signature Living has vowed to find a new home for the project.