Manchester will play host on Saturday to the UK’s first ever pop up store where the homeless can shop for free – an initiative pioneered by Lancashire entrepreneur Steve Houghton-Burnett.
Steve, whose previous achievements include selling one of the country’s first internet service providers for £300million, organised the one-day event which will provide the homeless with a choice of clothing and shoes donated by volunteers.
He revealed to MM how he was inspired by a two-minute video a friend had sent him of the same concept being trialled in South Africa, where many shoppers broke down in tears at the simple idea of choice.
“As soon as I’d seen the video, I decided that I needed to do one of these things in Manchester,” Steve said.
“The guys at the Street Store in Africa gave me some great advice, which was if you try and run one of these one your own without a local charity being involved, then it will fail.
“The first thing you need to do is get a charity that understands homeless people and the situation in Manchester to make it work.”
Manchester’s Street Store is being run by through Coffee4Craig, a homelessness charity started by a woman whose brother was found dead after sleeping rough.
Coffee4Craig has more than 30 regular volunteers running three street kitchens every week in Manchester, along with a weekly welfare walk to check on rough sleepers who can gain access to temporary housing, advice and medical care.
“Their first reaction to me was suspicion,” Steve admitted.
“The reason was because they have a load of people trot up, tell them they’re going to change the world, and then disappear.
“They didn’t welcome me with open arms: I had to go and meet with them a couple of times before they were convinced that I was serious about making this happen and that they weren’t wasting their time and resources.”
Anyone interested in donating clothes can hand them over at a collection point on Houldsworth Street on Saturday morning
The Lancashire-based businessman sensationally admitted that he had developed an ‘irrational’ phobia of homeless people since his teenage years, which drove him to become a successful businessman. He also even seeked the help of a hypnotherapist to help overcome it.
“It’s irrational, but my phobia was very simple,” he revealed.
“I got to the point where I had it in my head that if a homeless person touched me I would catch it in some way and become homeless.
“Part of what the hypnotherapist helped me to figure out was I’d had two incidents in my teenage life that I had never connected. But when I was actually in the therapy I was able to connect the two incidents.
“One was with an old boss, and the other was an incident with me and a group of other people and a homeless person. Effectively, my mind had overlaid the fact that failure and homelessness were linked together.”
TAKE TO THE STREETS: The idea has reached all corners of the globe
Steve also admitted he was a caring person and that he didn’t just decide to start the project because it was nearing Christmas, which can be a lonely time for the homeless.
“I’ve done various other bits for charity,” he said.
“My wife is also a very charitable person. A couple of years ago, she shaved all her hair off to raise money for a charity in Africa. We do our bit and do what we can to be charitable.
I think anybody who feels guilty about the homeless at Christmas needs to actually go and stand in Piccadilly in the middle of July and they’ll see the same homeless people. It’s not a Christmas issue. This is an all year round problem.”
The Street Store event will be taking place on Saturday at Houldsworth Street from 11am-3:30pm.
People can drop off donations between 8.30am-11am.
All images courtesy of The Street Store, via YouTube, with thanks
