Macari’s help for the homeless

Every day, more than 3,500 people sleep rough on the streets of Britain. Back in February, former Stoke City manager Lou Macari opened the Macari Centre for Stoke’s homeless people. He took Soccer Saturday’s Johnny Phillips on a guided tour of the facility

Just a mile north of Stoke-on-Trent is the town of Hanley. It is here, in a handful of single story buildings on Hanley Road that the local council operates its Parking Services office.

Unless you’d fallen foul of the council’s parking rules there would be no reason to visit. But over the last year another group of people have made this place home.

Behind the front reception, a couple of the office blocks have been converted into a homeless centre. There are male and female dormitories, shower and toilet blocks, kitchens and a common room. This refuge for the most vulnerable people in society, those who have nowhere else to turn, is all the work of former Stoke City manager Lou Macari.

“Well I was walking through Hanley one night, and people had told me there were a lot of rough sleepers there, it was about half seven at night. Very quickly I saw three or four people in doorways here and there. I think throughout the night I saw 20 to 25 people in doorways. 

“I thought, ‘This is ridiculous.’ There was no need for people to be sleeping rough in any city where there are properties. My only intention at the time was to get these people off the street and keep them warm and dry. I thought that would be a good start.”

So Macari called in a favour. He phoned a former sports journalist friend, from his time as manager at the Potters, who now works for the council and asked if there were any vacant buildings he could borrow to house the homeless. So when his mate offered him an empty part of the Parking Services office he took it.

“From day one we were given the facilities by the council and the beds and other equipment was put here for us from the start. The response from everybody in Stoke has been brilliant.”

With the help of the city council and the many donors who have provided equipment and food, the Macari Centre launched last February. Walking …

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