skip to main content
The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland
Text size:

100 Help The Homeless

  • Removed

  • This charity was removed from the register on 16 Apr 2019
Charity no. 100203 Date registered. 07/05/2014

Public benefits

The provision of a drop-in and advice centre: The direct benefits that will flow from this will be the reduction in numbers of people street begging/drinking in Belfast City Centre, and the increased safety/health of those that use the centre. This can be evidenced through feedback from the public in Belfast, and also monitoring the health of our

service users. There is a potential for harm to the volunteers who would be working in the drop in centre. However this potential for harm is completely outweighed by the benefits flowing from the purpose. The potential for harm is minimised as far as possible by appropriate training being provided to volunteers to ensure that their safety and the safety of other volunteers and service users is always of paramount importance. The beneficiaries of this purpose are vulnerable homeless adults living in Northern Ireland. There are no private benefits gained from this purpose. Working with and referring people to other statutory and voluntary support agencies and organisations: The direct benefit that will flow from this purpose is a positive change in the service user’s personal situation, be it their physical/mental health or for issues such as housing or benefits. This can be measured through key-working with our service users to monitor improvements in their personal situations. This benefit does not cause any harm. The beneficiaries of this purpose are vulnerable homeless adults living in Northern Ireland. There are no private benefits gained from this purpose. Promoting, providing or assisting in the provision of other welfare services: The direct benefit that will flow from this purpose is an increase in awareness of, increase of availability, or improving the ease of availing of - welfare services provided in Northern Ireland for homeless adults. This can be measured by assessing the number of our service users availing of welfare services and/or liaising with welfare service providers to assess if they have an increased level of homeless individuals requesting assistance. This benefit does not cause any harm. The beneficiaries of this purpose are vulnerable homeless adults living in Northern Ireland. The only private benefit that may possibly arise from this is the promotion of other welfare services. This may be governmental or non-governmental organisations that provide services for issues such as mental health, benefits, housing etc. – however if this did occur it would be very limited.

What your organisation does

100 Help the Homeless is a peer led service, run by volunteers, aimed at providing a voice for homeless service users through self-representation with the support of members of the general public who wish to help. In current homeless services there is no substantial representation of service users, we aim to change that with the support of over 100

volunteers from the non-homeless background. The idea was inspired by the amount of people who have expressed an interest in supporting members of the homeless community without really knowing where to start. We will be providing a platform for service users to have their voices heard, through creating Northern Ireland’s first service user network forum. This will allow homeless individuals to connect with similar minds and shape the services that they use by bringing their issues to those who provide the services. It will also help bring serious issues into the public domain and raise awareness. A specific aim of our organisation is to make sure that homeless service users are involved at every level, not just a token but to be actively involved in representing themselves and their peers. We aim to provide a cross community drop-in service to assist the most vulnerable, those who ‘slip through the net’. To date there is no cross-community drop in service for those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. In our combined experience the city centre homeless do not wish to venture out of the city, it may be a case of lack of motivation to move out of the area or just a case that the individual’s physical and mental health is so poor that this seems like a difficult task - so we hope to set up a service for these individuals that will be close in proximity. This will ease tensions from local business owners who are actively trying to move them off the streets and out of sight of their potential customers and would also be providing a much needed service for those homeless people who appear to be ‘forgotten about’.

The charity’s classifications

  • The prevention or relief of poverty
  • The advancement of health or the saving of lives
  • The advancement of human rights, conflict resolution or reconciliation or the promotion of religious or racial harmony or equality and diversity
  • The relief of those in need by reason of youth, age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage

Who the charity helps

  • Addictions (drug/solvent/alcohol abuse)
  • Ex-offenders and prisoners
  • Homelessness
  • Specific areas of deprivation
  • Unemployed/low income

How the charity works

  • Accommodation/housing
  • Advice/advocacy/information
  • Education/training
  • General charitable purposes
  • Human rights/equality
  • Relief of poverty

Charitable purposes

The Objects The Charity’s objects (‘the Objects’) are to relieve poverty, hardship and protect the health of all persons who are homeless, and/or affected by drink or drugs, and/or suffering emotional or psychological stress by: (a) the provision of a drop-in and advice centre; (b) promoting, providing or assisting in the provision of other welfare services; (c) working with and referring people to other statutory and voluntary support agencies and organisations.