Over the last year, I’ve made several trips to the Macari Centre, a street homeless centre in the city centre set up by Lou Macari in 2015. The centre is in Regent Road, behind a City Council building, and home to 48 male and female residents. It’s always an experience visiting - you always get a warm welcome, a cup of tea and something to eat given to you, either cooked by the staff or from the endless donations that arrive. I have not visited yet when I haven’t passed someone dropping something off, whether bedding, clothing or food. The generosity of Stoke-on-Trent residents and businesses is just amazing.
The Macari Centre doesn’t just provide a shelter, Lou and his team are driven to do so much more in terms of rehabilitation for residents. This isn’t easy or cheap, and whilst Lou does an incredible job of raising money to support the centre’s work, it’s important that the Macari Centre are recognised officially to enable them to access central government funding. Part of this is linked to having security as a centre - and giving the Macari Centre a five year lease provides that. Whilst there are plans to develop the Regent Road site in the near future, and Lou needs a bigger place anyway to properly accommodate the centre, we will continue to work together to ensure we can support the Macari Centre to become a registered provider and have a permanent base in the city. The five year lease helps make that a reality.
