Former Manchester United stars Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, had bought the historic Manchester Stock Exchange building and are currently working to develop it into a 35-bedroom boutique. But a group of homeless persons are occupying the building.
Instead of evicting them, the duo have decided to let the homeless people stay in the building for a while.
The gesture has left Wesley Hall, leader of homeless campaign group, Manchester Angels “crying and shaking”, according to Hall himself.
Hall was also gushing in his praise of Neville, the senior partner, who he says would like to do more to help the homeless.
“What a great guy Gary Neville is. We’ve been in negotiations with him and things are looking good,” he told the Manchester Evening News.
“He said the main building work isn’t taking place until February, so we’ll be okay to stay until then.
“He’s having surveyors in tomorrow, with a bit of building work being done. I cheekily said to him he should have the homeless guys do it instead of labourers to give them a bit of work.
“I’m just in shock. He’s such an amazing guy. He told me he’s always tried to help out homeless people in Manchester, but wanted to do more.
“He said he was walking down Market Street one day and had the keys to the Stock Exchange. He said he was tempted to just open the doors and let homeless people in to get a roof over their heads.
“He knows we’ll look after the building and make proper use of it until the building work starts. This isn’t a long term thing, but we’ll have so much going on in here to help people.
“It’s exactly what Manchester needs right now.”
