HOPE for the Homeless have combined two of their stores, The Hope Shop and Trendy Treasures to create a new shop called Hope and Treasures which is on the Pacific Highway at 51 Grafton Street, Coffs Harbour.

Home for the Homeless founder Dean Evers explained more about the new shop.

“We have our everyday clothing range, every item is two dollars, there’s some great bargains in that section, DVDs, books and CDs are all one dollar each which are also very popular.

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“Then there’s our ticketed item section which has stunning vintage evening wear, dresses you might see in old movies which are no longer available these days.

“We also have bridal wear, gowns, retro and bohemian items, things which are unique.

“Having a place like this in the centre of town gives us a footprint which is closer to the community so we can help more people,” said Dean.

Bellingen Shop manager, Terese Pittari has been a volunteer with Hope for the Homeless for four years.

“I’ve been helping Dean for four years now, my passion is helping homeless people, I enjoy what I do.

“People are homeless in our neighbourhood for a number of reasons such as domestic violence or people returning from rehabilitation.

“We have women coming here from a domestic violence situation with nothing and we give them whatever we can such as clothes, basically anything we have in the shop.

“We had a lady with five kids who found a new place but had nothing.

“We decked her house out with the essentials she needed.

“I run one of the charity’s stores in Bellingen called A Little Bit Gypsy and we have eight volunteers helping to make that work.

“The stuff is really nice and is well supported both by the local community and tourists.

“We had a gentleman walk into the Bellingen shop a couple of Friday’s ago, he was sleeping under a tarp with his partner and their dog and it was one of the wettest weekends of the year.

“We gave them warm clothes, sleeping bags, emergency food and some food for the dog, it made me happy we were able to help,“ smiled Terese.

By David WIGLEY