Recently I visited the Hope Centre, a charity in Northampton that has a 40 year history in the town. Starting as a soup kitchen for the homeless, the Hope Centre is now a comprehensive charity that supports many of the essential needs of the homeless in Northampton, such as food, clothing and personal care, but also with an emphasis on providing a hand-up not just a hand-out: they teach skills that help people to become self-reliant, that helps people to gain job skills, and the confidence and motivation to try to move forward with their lives. Their work is very impressive and they are expanding their premises; they showed me around the new facilities being developed.
I have long supported the work of the Hope Centre in helping the homeless in Northampton. In my role I sometimes give advice and assistance to those facing homelessness, and I know that many of the people I have helped have also had valuable support through the Hope Centre charity.
I think it is really important that, as a society, we work to tackle the causes of poverty and homelessness, and give people the tools they need to improve their situation.
This particular visit was a good opportunity to see some of the recent changes the Hope Centre has made, including the recently refurbished Maple Building – as well as to hear about their preparations for their busy winter/Christmas period and their long-term plans.
In Parliament, I also voted to extend the Homelessness Prevention Grant, which provides important support to prevent people falling into homelessness in the first place.