Manchester Lifeshare kitchen for homeless finds new home

The kitchen offers a free cooked breakfast to rough sleepers at weekends

A kitchen serving homeless people has found a new home after losing its premises to redevelopment.

Lifeshare was the only place giving Manchester's rough sleepers cooked breakfasts at weekends.

Trustees of its previous home said the premises were no longer "fit for purpose" and Lifeshare was offered an alternative, but that was being used as a temporary night shelter.

Lifeshare is now using space at Limelight centre in Old Trafford.

Limelight opened in 2018

Lifeshare was told it had to leave its premises at Charter Street Mission, near Manchester city centre, by 19 February.

In February, Lifeshare operations manager Judith Vickers said: "If that service is not there, you are going to get more people dying on the streets, more people poorly."

The Charter Street Mission is now surrounded by luxury flats and offices

A spokesperson for Limelight, which is owned by Trafford Housing Trust, said it contacted Lifeshare to offer its "brilliant community hub" after the story was reported by the BBC in February.

In a statement, Limelight said the offer was part of Trafford Housing Trust's commitment to a pledge by Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham to end street homelessness in the region by 2020.

In 2017, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority introduced a £1.8m plan to provide accommodation and support to those sleeping on the streets.

Lifeshare will be providing meals again from this weekend.