JOYFUL music and testimonies from people who have turned their lives around from homelessness last night marked the opening of a new soup kitchen at an iconic Belfast church.
A Mass of Hope for Belfast's homeless community was held at St Patrick's Church on Donegall Street to launch the start of a regular soup kitchen at the city centre location.
Organisers say it is the first soup kitchen to be established in a Catholic Church in Northern Ireland and is acting on Pope Francis' plea to help the homeless.
The service will operate every Friday and Saturday night from 7pm to 11pm in a bid to "provide a safety-net and vital lifeline to those experiencing poverty and homelessness".
But there are hopes it will be expanded further to help the growing numbers of homeless people on the streets of Belfast.
To launch the initiative, a Mass of Hope was held in St Patrick's last night with music from Belfast City Gospel Choir and testimonies from those who were homelessness, but have now secured a better life.
Paul McCusker, an SDLP councillor and homeless activist, is among those behind the project. He said it was "all about supporting those in our community who have fallen on hard times".
"At the minute we are seeing an increase in homelessness, in particular young people that are presenting as homeless and we see big issues around mental health and drug addiction problems as well," he said.
"When you look at the recent figures from 2015/16, almost 19,000 people presented homeless and 52 per cent of those people were single people so we certainly have a big problem.
"Every night in Belfast each night, crash facilities and hostel beds are being used so we know those current services need to be expanded in terms of ensuring the people are able to access those facilities each night.
"This is the first soup kitchen to open in a Catholic Church in Northern Ireland.
"St Patrick's is very accessible, it's in the centre of Belfast and when you walk through the city centre you see people on the street - they can access the church easily and it's about keeping the focus and keeping the attention on what is still a big problem in society."
Mr McCusker said teams of volunteers have already pledged their support to help and show solidarity with those who have fallen on hard times.
"There is a good appetite from people who want to help and we've received many offers of donations for the food," he said.
"Long-term, we have to look at how we sustain the soup kitchen, but I expect it could become something that opens up to five times a week. The key thing is keeping the focus and giving those people who have lost all hope, a bit of hope in terms of support for what they need."
Fr Dominic McGrattan of St Patrick's Church added: "We see a major problem of homelessness in Belfast, we wanted to highlight the issue and start an initiative to do something practical to help.
"We realised we needed to do something big, something that reaches out to people. It is fairly unusual to use a church space for such a facility, but we feel it is important to thrown open the doors of our church."
