Campaign launched to encourage businesses to employ the homeless

Hire the Homeless is a campaign to encourage businesses in Manchester to employ homeless people in a bid to tackle the rising tide of homelessness in the city.

Anyone applying for a job needs a fixed address, something homeless people by definition do not have.

They have no choice but to use their local job centre, local shelter or hostel, or even local church as their postal address.

This immediately creates a stigma surrounding job applications and can very often leads to them not getting paid work.

Initiatives such as Proxy Address use ‘existing records of empty properties’ to provide addresses for those in need and help homeless jobseekers reach the interview stage. However, more often than not employers continue to turn away homeless people at interviews, unable to see past their own prejudices.

With homelessness rising at an alarming scale, this can no longer be viewed as acceptable.

According to Homeless Link, in 2017 Manchester ranked fourth in the highest levels of rough sleeping, with a 21% increase on rough sleeping from 2016.

Greater Manchester Together states that 5,564 people are recorded as homeless within the region, as well as approximately 1 in 62 households being at risk of becoming homeless due to repossession/eviction.

It is time for businesses in Manchester to abolish the negative stereotypes surrounding homelessness and work together towards a homeless free city.

Our petition is addressed to Manchester City Council who we want to spread the word among businesses in Manchester about the benefits of employing a homeless person.

Please sign the petition, and stay up to date with the campaign via our Twitter and Facebook pages.

#hirethehomeless