The Tudor hotel sheltering the homeless from Covid-19

When councils were instructed to provide accommodation for their homeless population to protect them from coronavirus, Mike Matthews, owner of the Prince Rupert hotel in Shrewsbury, was one of the first to step in. The decision was part business decision to save his hotel, part philanthropy to help homeless people he admits he usually ignored. The new residents, including a former employee, feel it has given them some dignity back and offered them a rare feeling of family and safety. They also know this cannot be a permanent change to their lives, so what happens next?
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[@lucaslouzada44]

“They just had a bad roll of the dice...”

[@dt1111able]

Obviously he doesn't know much about what he's talking about, there are many different reasons why people are and become homeless... I didn't really feel much sincerity from someone so upper class and wealthy but I suppose he's trying)

[@lucaslouzada44]

dt1111able Indeed, if it’s far from any moral certainty - be it in favor of individual choices or social preconditions - of course homelessness isn’t completely random. He probably understood, though, that his ideas about it were much less realistic than he initially thought, and that’s a teaching to be learned...

[@amenamen5648]

So shines a good deed in a weary world.

[@care4557]

Such a beautiful way to help others. We are doing the same thing in New Orleans. Many local hotels have taken in the homeless. They help them with clothing and find resources to help.

[@citrus100]

It's beautiful to see people sharing and giving to the less fortunate 😊

[@lorrainealdred267]

Now I am fully behind supporting homelessness at all times, not just during the crisis.However, people need to know that the owner of this hotel is 'good friends' with council members and is being paid full rates by the council so his hotel is not empty.....and full rates at this hotel are among the most expensive in town, so tax payers are paying twice as much as they would if they'd used the Travelodge or Premier Inn in town and the owner is more than happy. Just saying there are ulterior motives.

[@lives2read]

Are you sure it is full rates? Councils usually try to negotiate rates with hoteliers.

[@PenisMcWhirtar]

@YoshiPeach Mario I work in the hotel business and believe me, it's easier to just close shop and put the staff on leave. This hotelier shows what happens when we start to view the "other" as a human being instead of a threat. 👁 👁 👄

[@dt1111able]

@@lives2read I agree, I don't think they're paying full rates, if they're taking the whole hotel at once, they're must be a discount

[@dt1111able]

@YoshiPeach Mario Maybe, but I don't think they're paying full rates, if they're taking the whole hotel at once, they're must be a discount

[@dt1111able]

@@PenisMcWhirtar hi, Im not sure what you mean, can you explain a bit more?

[@Blazedbarbie333]

They decided to open there home basically to homeless that’s frigin awesome I don’t care what anyone says

[@philosoftfurkitusjunkyard2462]

The neighbors too have the right to protect theirs homes and families, the hotel owner just need to reassure them

[@lorrainealdred267]

Now I am fully behind supporting homelessness at all times, not just during the crisis.However, people need to know that the owner of this hotel is 'good friends' with council members and is being paid full rates by the council so his hotel is not empty.....and full rates at this hotel are among the most expensive in town, so tax payers are paying twice as much as they would if they'd used the Travelodge or Premier Inn in town and the owner is more than happy. Just saying there are ulterior motives.

[@denisbrennan5536]

@@lorrainealdred267 if it was your hotel I'm sure you would take whatever money the council gave too. Sounds a bit like sour grapes to me. I'd sooner see the money go into the pockets of a small independent hotel instead of big players like the travel lodge and premier inn.

[@L-Bj]

*their

[@mustafella]

This warmed my heart.. this is nice. I want to thank the hotel owner + staff, the council and The Guardian Paper. I hope this change their life

[@patriciasaluti5084]

Mustafe Mohamed There lovely people that’s Famlies did not understand veterans. Our VETERANS Addictsthat families gave up.

[@patriciasaluti5084]

Very Heartwarming

[@thealchemistdaughter3405]

Absolutely brilliant.. I watched theses gentlemen being interviewed this morning.. humbling stuff .. This is the British spirit we know and love 💕 well done to all involved 👏🏻 And Thankyou for lifting all our spirits in such chaotic times.. The Gods of good will bless you all 🙏🏻

[@simondavey7787]

I used to be homeless in Shropshire and this has made me cry. I hope the work continues to get these folk off the street.

[@feluiz6225]

I like this one Guardian. Great job. Sending love ...Congratulations!!!

[@Don-jy9yd]

What lovely kind people to do this, and with such warmth. It's so nice to see.

[@pollutingpenguin2146]

“Their natural habitat”? They aren’t animals! Lol

[@franklingoodwin]

I read that in David Attenborough's voice 🤣

[@truth-hurts3089]

We're all animals!! That's exactly why we're all in this situation in the first place!

[@nepadron]

Right that was a weird way to put it. I guess he was trying to make a generalized reference to the various places one might live when houseless.

[@pollutingpenguin2146]

@@nepadron Yes I am aware of that - I just thought it was a funny way of putting it hence the use of ''lol'' at the end :0)

[@ThatDogBarkz]

I did a little double take when I heard that. Bit cringe but we'll let him off this time : / : D

[@Patrick-jj5nh]

It's strange it takes 40.000 people to die for some to discover their humanity... still, beautiful film.

[@timcomley3241]

done your bit have you?

[@ArcticXun-936]

Common guys, you understood what he meant though. _ What a great initiative, I would love to see others with similar opertunities to be inspired & pick up the ball from here. Or even more importantly also *after* things have returned back to what we think of as normal. This is our chance to stand up to become more independent and figure out how we want our society to look like before & not wait until things will go back to normal. We can all become one🙏 PLUR 🕉 🕺💜 😆

[@Tolu1994]

Glad to see not all humanity is lost ❤️

[@maggieadams8600]

It's lovely to hear this heart warming story amidst the misery. The homeless deserve a break, a chance to get on their feet.

[@geminikb]

I live in Minneapolis. I feel extremely blessed and fortunate that both hubby and I have been able to hold on to our jobs and work at home. Because of the climate in Minneapolis/Minnesota, I don’t think we have as large a homeless population as other large cities with warmer weather.... but... Even in my neighborhood just South of Minneapolis I see someone (different) holding a sign every day at the freeway exit where I get off to go to my quiet little suburban neighborhood. Today is Memorial Day. Went out for my weekly supply run at Target. And it was crazy busy with shoppers today. On my way out of the shopping complex, I saw a well-bodied man who looked to be in his 30’s on the curb with his whole family, huddled over a heap of whatever possessions they could carry, holding a sign that said, “Hard times, 4 kids...”. Traffic was so busy I couldn’t even take it all in. (I circled back and gave-NOT the point of my comment). Regardless of how housing works in England and whether this guy is benefitting or not.... seems like looking into how we can use our resources right now to take care of those who are homeless because of the pandemic (and extend it to homelessness in general) is the humanitarian thing to do. So many empty hotel rooms. I know it’s complex, though. Just here on KZbin learning about how homeless people are dealing with this.

[@GeorgeGeorgeOnly]

Wow! This is what can make a real difference for everyone. I love how something good has come out of something bad.

[@kathyinwonderlandl.a.8934]

Unbelievable I wish it could happen thousands of times over

[@kathyinwonderlandl.a.8934]

William Riley yes I’ll gladly do that but unfortunately it’s not myself in charge of this shitshow

[@HeyMJ.]

One of the best stories I’ve seen in awhile. Thank you for a window into the Inn’s new life under lockdown. 🕊

[@thisisitgem]

Wow - I love this powerful story coming out of the strange days of lockdown. This hotel owner Mike (and the amazingly kind manager, Charlie ) show what can happen with a bit of humanity and generosity of spirit. His honesty and openness to the homeless demonstrate change is possible. Lovely to see the healing looks on the faces here of those who fell on hard times and or perhaps like all of us made a few bad choices in the past. Very best wishes to them all and the lovely Prince Rupert Hotel’s successful recovery after lockdown .Must remember to pay a visit in the future ! 🌟🌈🌟💟

[@animalcol1]

Wonderful. A little compassion goes a long way 💛

[@animalcol1]

@@chrisf1600 have done. And I don't live in the uk. Someone has to help out those less well off, regardless of their circumstances, due to cynical smartarses who haven't got the capacity to look beyond their own narcissistic needs. I really feel sorry for you. Your life must be one long cynical self absorbed sh1t sandwich.

[@patriciasaluti5084]

Anybody the smallest kind Action to This Amazing kindness. This how it done. Made my day. God Bless you all. Xx

[@smart4980]

The video I needed to see today to restore my faith in humanity...absolutely amazing job guys.

[@Oo-lf1mu]

Must be so nice to take a shower and sleep in a bed with four walls and door that closes. Hopefully this can be a stepping stone to get them into real housing and begins new pry of their life.

[@xute89]

This brought me to tears, how wonderful people. If I come back to the UK I'll go to that homely hotel. Thanks for existing

[@neiljohnfaulkner]

Well done everyone

[@NiaPgn]

Well God bless you for doing this. God bless those experiencing homelessness. May God keep you all healthy and safe.

[@maribrunson4464]

Awesome story! In life, we all travel different roads and you never know who may have to give you a drink of water. You can never lose by sharing love with others.

[@denispolovynka7523]

God bless you all guys!

[@danielreed3258]

I have stayed at this hotel and u could meet nicest of staff around with big huge hearts

[@KathleenMcCormickLCSWMPH]

Wonderfully encouraging!

[@smartypants7954]

How?

[@kennethbaker4447]

🙏❤️🇺🇲Love the Change of Mr.Matthews perspective on HOMELESS and saying how rewarding it is to help others and see the Gratitude of the HOMELESS. Mr. Matthews human Compassion surfaced and Perspective of Homelessness 🙏 Sincerely, Patricia Sue Chandler-Lindquist age 63 Held HOMELESS in MARYLAND 🇺🇲 21 yrs

[@zozotrader166]

Sweet, great gentleman and lady...

[@patriciasaluti5084]

ThankYou New Orleans xx

[@ArcticXun-936]

What a great initiative, I would love to see others with similar opertunities to be inspired & pick up the ball from here. Or even more importantly also *after* things have returned back to what we think of as normal. This is our chance to stand up to become more independent and figure out how we want our society to look like before & not wait until things will go back to normal. We can all attribute, we can all become one🙏 PLUR 🕉 🕺💜

[@angelomelville9084]

More!!

[@lionsingh18]

Just respect to the Hotel and looks like great food

[@Kimmy234L]

Well done❣❣❣👏👏👏👏

[@nepadron]

Meanwhile, zero motels/hotels in my area will agree to take anyone in on an emergency basis. We don't NEED any beds yet for quarantine, but even when asking for the future, every single owner has refused.

[@swiftnevisonbushwrangler6905]

It’s just a shame it will all come to a end

[@stuartwilliams7912]

Respect to everyone at the Prince Rupert kind people.

[@adrianarodrigues3420]

Great👏👏👏👏👏

[@encrypt3dbr0k3r]

Good man.

[@SilverStarEyes]

And when its time to go...then what?

[@juststee]

Hopefully.. The world will be a changed place.. Im confident it will be a better place

[@stephenconlon653]

Marvellous Hope they’re behaving themselves!

[@stephenclarke8526]

Natural assumption that the homeless are going to mess around? Not like the Oxford Bullingden club, smashing up places, abusing a variety of people and then afterwards many of the members of the club making it through to parliament cabinet and PM positions?

[@maryshaffer8474]

Amazing. Was it built during plague years?

[@c.t5136]

This is brilliant. let's hope this idea grows and the hotel finds a greater benefit to all of this

[@patriciasaluti5084]

Life’s lessons

[@007mia7]

I love this!!!!

[@susanb4816]

i find the guy without the subtitles harder to follow than the guy with. note: subtitles on only one speaker make that speaker seem deficient. subtitle everyone or no one

[@theGuardian]

Thanks for the feedback!

[@sorayaraza5827]

This is called Humanity. Costs notj I g to be kind.

[@annem.4316]

This is truly Gods work

[@THE-GOOBER-KID]

what did he say at 1:33

[@bibbadybabbedy5969]

I wonder how much the council are paying this guy? I believe that this was a huge incentive to agree. Keeps his business afloat. As soon as all of this is back to normal, all of these people will be ejected from the place and back to the miserable life they thought they had escaped

[@TheChickenRiceBowl]

Pretty much.

[@gsfcdy]

People only respect money

[@davidstorton910]

These are really nice people, some times I think there may be hope for the world

[@vtec8000xrpm]

I wish there was a program like this for me here in the NorthEast part of the United States. I am 30, struggling to get into trade-school to become a successful auto mechanic for specializing in SUBARU, never used drugs and I run every morning at 0600. I just wish I could find somewhere to stay until schools here in Boston open back up again. All I want to do is turn wrenches and rebuild boxer engines.

[@trebor9711]

Soon as it's over it will go back to normal, being ignored 🤪🤪

[@lspbeautea4791]

Natural habitat 👀

[@Cl0ckcl0ck]

Yeah, but in the end they just sell a service to the city. It's no cashflow or the cashflow the council gives you for housing the homeless.

[@kylepritchard2308]

The one with the mullets my dad

[@paxundpeace9970]

Homelessness is a big problem in the UK.

[@antoniettatattoli4178]

Voglio. Le telenovelas. E. Biutiful.

[@antoniettatattoli4178]

Voglio. Le. Telenovelas. E biutiful. Ciaoooo.

[@CarlosHenrique-sn3le]

Excuse -me to ask : Are there homeless people graduated in the UK ? Why do I wonder? Because crisis does not choose education level,mainly in the country where I was born-Brazil The unique good attitude is to help and not to classify !

[@georgeking2369]

It's very kind of him to do this for the homeless but he is not doing it for nothing he will be getting a payment of someone

[@umarsmooth9515]

His not doing it 4 free..... Making money of the homeless

[@Callie1981]

he's not charging the homeless, he's charging the council, so he's not making money from the homeless, He's making money from the council, and helping the homeless at the same time

[@billijomaynard8924]

i wonder how many others watching this have noticed the majority of these wonderful people are single men and women. There is a reason for that. Under normal circumstances they get very little to no help from the councils whatsoever because they do not fit the criteria set out by the Government to receive temporary accommodation. Unless a homeless person is a pregnant woman, has dependant children , is severely disabled or seriously ill, or elderly they get nothing. Also anyone that is rude to homeless people in the UK, you need to open your eyes. Yes some do have addiction and mental health issues but that is not always the case. The laws in the UK sorrounding Landlords and Tenants favor the Landlords. Now i know a lot of Landlords would disagree with me on that but it is the truth. Landlords can evict a tenant for any reason, if a section 21 is issued the tenant basically does not have a leg to stand on. A lot of homeless people find themselves in the situation they are in through absolutely no fault of their own. They may have had a nice flat at one point and the Landlord decides that they want to refurbish and raise the rent, move back in themselves or sell the property. Then they are caught in the position of having to look for a new place, which is not always easy depending where you live. Some places rents can be extortionate, London, Bristol, (good examples). A lot of them are low income, work in a job that is low pay or Zero Hours Contract or are looking for work and are on UC or Benefits. On top of that some get their notice from the County Court giving then a date when they have to leave in which they are led to believe they have some time only to have High Court Enforcement Officers show up within a day or two and toss them out into the street within an hour. You see, if they have been in contact with their local council, the majority are not told about this. Many Landlords will not rent to someone who is on UC or has a low income which makes finding a new place twice as hard. This is just a typical situation i have come across from my research. I'm Canadian my friends, i was born there and i live in Canada and do not know everything that happens across the pond. But I love the UK with all my heart, and i consider the British people family. Most of my ancestors come from Britain, mostly from Kent and West Sussex and i do hope to immigrate to Britain at some point in my life. Because of this i'm very interested in learning the laws in the UK so if i do manage to get there i have an idea of what i'm doing. God Bless, stay safe and all my love to you all.

[@f8ofk8]

Social distancing not a thing in Britain?

[@quincym-e4680]

They will be making a fortune from the council!!

[@stuarthulme8170]

biased reporting and blatant lies .Why in the clip with the police do you not report that the police were called because the homeless people tried to break into the pub next door twice, the people at the pub had not shouted anything or are not being discriminating

[@antoeckhart]

Storyline: The government pays a posh hotel owner to accomodate homeless people. Who pays? The taxpayers.

[@BankruptGreek]

I pay my landlord in Cyprus who buys English tea which is made by an English farmer who pays taxes. Who pays? Me

[@animalcol1]

Antonio. I have compassion for you and your cynical viewpoint. To see something so positive come out of a very difficult situation and look on it with such a jaded cynicism and contrarian viewpoint leads me to believe that you may be struggling in some way yourself at the moment. I wish you the best and hope that you are healthy and safe. Namaste 💛

[@smartypants7954]

@@animalcol1 Until this moment, i've never read a KZbin comment that has made me throw up and scratch out my eyes. You have achieved that. Believe in yourself and keep pushing your energy out into the world xx Namaste 💋

[@ughhheather]

Antonio Lc as they f-cking should.

[@a1990hussain]

I'd rather my taxes go to help a homeless person find roof & their self-dignity again, than bail out a billion aire who can't be bothered to liquidate assets.

[@KatharineOsborne]

Watching the complete lack of social distance is giving me hives.

[@kingafendikingafendi8897]

During this pendemic period homeless same your accomodations business homeless created lot of business for other , but they were greedy they take never given back that were the real situation close lots of business , homeless don't need their food and goods business

[@chris77777777ify]

As a man it almost makes me cry. & it takes a fair amount to do that. Bottom line is, to many immigrants in UK. & harsher sentences need to be dealt out to heroine dealers. Better rehab services too.

[@susanb4816]

employed 600-700 people for a spot that has less than 40 staff? that tells me the jobs sucked. maybe management will learn from this

[@nicolafigini784]

Many of the jobs may have been seasonal, thus the high turnover.

[@animalcol1]

Why just pick out this negative viewpoint? Was there absolutely nothing positive in the entire episode?

[@susanb4816]

@@animalcol1 because such insensitivity can be hurtful and these folks are vulnerable. the guy is going to see this report and see how he appears to others and one message he will get is, "unintelligible". constructive criticism is not the same as negativity

[@NonPremiumID]

Community Spread/Herd Immunity. 😷☠

[@eliasramirez9372]

Very bad video specially stollen content makes no sense to use people