Mr Waite, who was kidnapped in 1987 and held captive by terrorists in Beirut for almost five years, is now president of Emmaus UK.

His promotional visit to the town included being shown round the Northampton Hope Centre, formerly the Northampton Soup Kitchen.

He said he was impressed with the facilities, which has been supporting local homeless people for 35 years.

Mr Waite, who also praised the planned flats for homeless people in Campbell Street, said: "The Hope Centre is a bit like giving first aid to homeless people.

"It is a different type of help from Emmaus, which is all about people helping themselves but it's vital work they do.

"I like the fact it has got extremely good leadership and they are very good at taking care of people's immediate needs.

"The lives of homeless people in Northampton would be miserable without it.

"The people at the Hope Centre have a very important job to do particularly with the recession having an effect.

"Having people sitting in doorways is not going to help robberies or drug use."

Mr Waite spent the rest of his visit in Northampton's Market Square talking to shoppers about Emmaus's efforts to get homeless people working on renovating furniture which was being demonstrated, and also his experiences as a hostage.

Mr Waite was a special envoy to the Archbishop of Canterbury when he was taken captive in Lebanon in 1987 while negotiating the release of hostages.

He said the fear and deprivation he felt when he was captive made him particularly sympathetic to the cause of the homeless.

He said: "I realised that, day in day out, many homeless people have to endure isolation, fear, boredom and despair. It's a very quick road from the top and very difficult indeed to begin to climb back up again."