Colin McInnes of Homeless Project Scotland reveals his story

His motivation, he said, comes from years of neglect and being failed as a child.

His relationship with Glasgow City Council and other charities in the field is that of an outsider, a disrupter who feels people are being let down by the status quo.

The charity he runs has at times been controversial and he has been subjected to suspicion, rumour and allegations of wrongdoing.

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All of which, he states are unfounded.

The charity also attracts a huge amount of donations and goodwill from the public and businesses.

Mr McInnes shared his story of his early life with the Glasgow Times, revealing why he decided to set up Homeless Project Scotland and why he will continue to be a thorn in the side of authority who, he said, would rather he shut up and go away.

The story he relates is one of abandonment, abuse and institutional failure.

His entire childhood was spent in care, from six months to 16 years, in children’s homes and foster placements.

He said: “It was the most horrific, harrowing part of my entire life, going through the system in Glasgow.

“Neglect and abuse was horrific.”

His experience was, he said, the subject of a significant case review.

Mr McInnes, said: “I'm driven by volunteering for this charity and volunteering my time to do what I do because I was let down by the system in Glasgow and I have ended up with my own health issues because of the horrific abuse and trauma that I was put through by the care of the council.”

He adds: “I was kicked out of the care system on my 16th birthday into a flat with nothing, and all I had was a bean bag, a table, a lamp, a tin of beans and a pot.

“And I will never forget that day that I was put in that flat, I didn't even have a bed and I burnt the pot of beans.”

“I had to survive on £57 a fortnight. It's horrific, absolutely horrific. So, because I've lived that, to have been brought up through that, I know the system.

“So that's what drives me to care and try and help support as many people that are getting crushed and ground up in this system.”

Mr McInnes recalls how and why the charity, which serves hundreds of meals a week, started from a flask of soup and a packet of broken biscuits.

He explains, how he met his sister, Tina, for the first time in 2019, when she returned to Scotland.

Mr McInnes said: “She told me her story of being homeless for three years in London, sleeping on the streets and coming through drug addiction.

 That, he said, inspired his first action to try to help people on the streets.

He said: “When she told me her story. I was actually in the bath one night and a horrific wind came through the bathroom window. It was freezing, I thought, it's chilly and I went and I made a pot of soup and I was like right guys, C’mon will go and see if there’s homeless people.

“We walked the streets of Glasgow with a flask of soup and a couple of sandwiches, and I always remember, a broken packet of bourbon biscuits. They cost us 30p in Asda.

"And that's how the project started and it grew from there. It grew from a broken packet of bourbon biscuits.”

The project, noted for its soup kitchen under the bridge at Argyle Street, has moved into a new welfare centre on Glassford Street open nightly from 6.30pm to 10pm.

It is he said: “The same operation, the same food, same choices, etc, etc. Obviously, it's indoor, it's warm, it's dignified.

“People come in and they sit and it's like a cafe setting. They can have a cup of tea and blether with a volunteer or amongst themselves.”

He said children are coming with their parents and use the computer games.

One man he said came last week who couldn’t use his gas or electric at home.

He said: "The pre-payment meter racked up daily standing charges and because that racks up, he's now got a massive debt deficit on his meter and can't afford to heat his house.

"Technically he's rough sleeping in his house because it's frozen.

“He said that it was cheaper for him to be able to travel here on a bus, from 6 till 10, and get food and heat."

The charity director, who is a single dad and full-time carer for his daughter who has special needs, hopes the indoor service will remain, adding: “We would hope to not take the soup kitchen back to the street and it would only go back to the street if we either lost this building and we couldn’t source another building.”

Some people have said the project is sitting on lots of money in the bank.

Colin defends the holding of reserves.

He said: “The public and businesses continue to donate to us and we're not in the business of wasting money.

“We're in the business of spending money as we need to spend it and we get so much support coming in, it's unbelievable.”

When it was about to spend thousands of pounds on mattresses and bedding for the centre he said the Mosque stepped in and donated them.

Similarly, with new vans needed to be LEZ compliant he said the Cargill Trust donated the cash.

A refrigeration firm, Fosters, stepped in to donate a walk-in freezer worth £20,000 and a laundry offered its services for free.

“We can't spend it because people are donating it.

“The money is there, and the money is getting used, we are transparent, we tell the public what we're spending money on.”

On the allegations, he states: “There's no skeletons in the closet, of Homeless Project Scotland.

“There's no misuse of money, there's no investigations for fraud, there's no police investigations. There are no Oscar investigations.

“It's all absolute gaslighting. It's so, so, frustrating and it hurts me. It really, really hurts me as a founder of this charity.”