About Us

Lifeline was birthed out of my wife Georgie and my own (Carl) desire to help homeless people and to serve the Lord Jesus in all we do.  This started for us in the winter of 2011/12 when meeting Martin, an alcoholic, who was sat in the tunnel in Bower Road.  We talked to him and he told us he was homeless and that he needed £14 to get into the hostel (this was of course not true as we would learn later on!). He was really dishevelled, was drinking, seemed extremely low and looked very cold.  It really moved us both to think that we were going to a nice warm house and here was a man sat out in the cold.  As it has turned out Martin’s case is anything but that simple, but it made us think much more deeply about the issue of homelessness.

 

I then met with Green Pastures in November of 2011 and realised that by partnering with them (they are a national Christian housing social enterprise) we could actually buy a house for the poor and marginalised to live in.

In July of 2012 we had a 'Launch the Vision' meeting at Kairos Church. From that meeting we were able to gather together a team of committed Christian volunteers, a board of directors and the message began to spread about Lifeline.

In October 2012 we found the right house and an offer was accepted. Our first house completed' on 11th January 2013.  We then set to work on renovating the house and we were amazed by the Church volunteers who came in and freely gave up their time to bring the house up to an exceptional standard.  We found a  builder to help us convert the house to a house of multiple occupancy.  We were able to house our first three residents on 19th February 2013.

We completed on our second house in December 2013, our third house in July 2015, our fourth in August 2018, our 5th in 2021 and our 6th house in 2022.  All are three bedroom houses.  So we can now house 18 residents at any one time. We are currently seraching for our 7th property. 
 

Lifeline became a Registered Charity in 2012.  We have been so encouraged by how people across the churches of Harrogate have offered up their support.  We do not force our faith of anyone and always respect where people are at in terms of their own spiritual journey, or none.  A place in Lifeline is in no way conditional and we house people without discrimination or favour.
 

Since housing people 11 years ago there have been over 41,000 nights of accommodation provided in Lifeline houses.  This has meant people being able to live in a place of security and rest, knowing that we are there to support them and that they have a place they can call 'home', with the dignity of having their own front door key.
 

We have housed 115 men and women over that period and 89% of the leavers have left us with a positive move-on option. 63% have found paid work whilst with Lifeline, 73% have actively engaged with their support plan and 75% have engaged in meaningful activity. 

We continue to have a vision to 'enlarge the place of our tent' (Isaiah 54:2 ) and have regular staff meetings and away days to discuss ideas so all our staff are involved in our future.