Halifax homeless support: Halifax pastor takes part in pioneering scheme to help people sleeping rough

Peter Chapple – whose life Lucy co-runs Lucy’s Little Bake House in Westgate Aracade in Halifax town centre – is working as a pastor for the newly-formed The Homeless Pastors CIC.

The organisation is working nationally to try to support rough sleepers and is currently in talks with organisations in St Helens, Manchester,

Blackpool, Colne, Keighley and Cambridge about employing pastors in these areas.

Peter will help to train the Halifax churches and charities about how best to serve the homeless and rough sleepers in Calderdale, delivering a regular outreach into towns and villages and signposting rough sleepers to homeless charities where they can receive support.

He will also run ‘Light Groups’ - a mixture of faith and recovery discussion groups, based at the Angels Rest Cafe on Crossley Street in Halifax at 10.30am every Thursday and the Project Colt cafe in Elland on a Friday at 1pm.

David Fawcett, founder of The Homeless Pastors CIC, said: “The results we are seeing in people’s lives is really encouraging.

"We are helping to build a community of people who are passionate to live a faith-filled, positive life, helping others and contributing back to Calderdale.”

David helped to build homeless charity Happydays UK and created the town centre’s food bank based at Ebenezer Church in 2008 as well as Halifax’s homeless night shelter, now based at The Gathering Place, in 2010.

He hopes to roll the new organisation out across the UK to help rough sleepers, starting with his hometown of Halifax.