IT’S just gone 10pm on a cold, dark winter night in the Hanley area of Stoke and Lou Macari is on foot patrol.

In the doorway of a local Royal Bank of Scotland he finds three near-frozen shapes covered in tattered blankets and cardboard.

Further up the road he comes across two more desolate, desperate figures wrapped in similar fashion trying to stay warm and out of the freezing wind.

A TV news bulletin about the number of homeless people in Britain had driven him out of the house and on to the streets.

Macari, 69, wanted to find out for himself whether the problem was as bad as the BBC were reporting.

Having seen the evidence for himself, Macari made up his mind there and then that he would do everything in his power to help the destitute. That was three years ago.

Now the Macari Centre on Hanley’s Regent Road next door to the City Central Mosque stands as a monument to the humanity of the Celtic and Manchester United legend.

When SunSport paid a visit to Macari, who made 401 appearances and scored 97 goals for the Red Devils, said: “The idea that I might be some sort of special person because I do this...it’s just not what I am or see.

“All I am interested in is making this place work and if it doesn’t work all these people here, they are back on the street.

“It’s not just football that is a results business — as I’ve found out, as Jose Mourinho has just found out. Establishments like this one are the same. But I’m glad to say, thanks to the incredible generosity of so many, things are going well.

“We’ve got about 20 turkeys stacked away back there in a fridge for Christmas dinner — I think they’re breeding!

“If we are short of anything — food, clothing, bedding, anything, I just let it be known and local people, businesses are there for us.

“And you should see Sunday nights in here. Every week at about 8pm a local supermarket sends a taxi full of fancy cakes made by Patisserie Valerie not sold that day. The place erupts — I swear, they make more noise than Old Trafford.”

A resident — a Liverpool supporter — interrupts to remind Macari about United’s 3-1 defeat at Anfield a few days earlier.

But the Liverpool fan gets a reminder himself, that it has been a lot longer than a few days  — 28 years — since the Anfield club have  won the league title.

It is an example of the constant banter, mostly about football, that goes on within the building that houses two dorms for men and one for women.

Macari added: “I knew nothing at all about the homeless until I went out that night and saw it with my own eyes.

“When I decided to do something about it I knew nothing about setting up anything like this place.

“What I have learned is this — that guy I was just having a laugh with, all of these people, they are human beings who should be treated as such.

“They have their problems — drink, drugs, family violence, crime, emotional difficulties.

“You name it, we see it all here but there for the grace of God go so many. So what I have learned is that if you treat them with dignity and respect, they respond.

“Some establishments are run on very different lines to this one —  regimented, full of rules and disciplines that a lot of people we see here struggle to deal with.

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“What I believe is that the more you talk to them, the more you communicate, the more they will tell you what they are going through, how better you can help them.

“If I don’t make them trust me and talk to me, how am I supposed to know if their problem, say, is being on the Monkey Dust or the Mamba? Aye, I know about terrible drugs like them now, too.”

There is money to be made from establishments like Macari’s. But Macari, who made Stoke his home after managing the Potters twice — the second spell between 1994 and 1997 — does not take a penny.

Every bit of housing benefit the local council pay to the shelter, that currently contains 34 men and women, goes back into the project.

On New Year’s Eve Macari will be taking all of them, and most of the 20 staff who help him run the place, to a local restaurant to celebrate.

As he often does to help make ends meet at his centre, he will be picking up the bill. But he does much more than that claims the former mayor of Stoke Anthony Munday.

He said: “Lou doesn’t just pick people up out of the gutter. He saves lives. There are people in this place who would be long dead without him.”

Munday, along with another ex– mayor in Terry Follows and former leader of Stoke council Dave Conway, helped Macari find the building that is now home to 27 men and seven women.

They continue to use their influence to support him. But while they sing his praises, Macari merely goes about the business of making sure his residents are cared for.

Macari, an FA Cup winner with United who beat arch-rivals Liverpool 2-1 in 1977, added: “What I know best of all is that there are so many  people out there who need help like this.

“We take as many in as we can and they are free to remain here as long as they want or need to get themselves back on their feet. I wouldn’t have it any way.

“Once you realise how big the problem of homelessness is, how desperate so many are just to have a roof over their heads ...why wouldn’t you do everything to help them?”

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