London Mayor & 18-strong charity coalition unite in campaign to help city’s rough sleepers
Melanie May | 15 December 2017 | News
Eighteen charities have joined forces with the Mayor of London in a campaign aimed at helping rough sleepers in the capital.
Mayor Sadiq Khan has brought the charities together to form a coalition, the London Homeless Charities Group, to offer Londoners an easily accessible single donation point, with all funds generated going equally to all 18 charities to direct services where they are needed most. Charities in the coalition include Albert Kennedy Trust, Centrepoint, The Connection at St Martins, Crisis, St Mungo’s, Depaul, and Homeless Link. The campaign will also show Londoners how they can direct outreach services towards people found sleeping rough.
The campaign asks people to donate to the London Charities Homeless Group via a GoFundMe page set up by the coalition. In addition, the Mayor has announced that he will open emergency weather shelters on every ‘sub-zero’ day with all 33 London boroughs signed up to the scheme, with work also beginning on a new permanent hub to help first-time rough sleepers.
The campaign runs for two months and will be promoted on London Underground and supported across the Mayor’s social media channels.
We're glad to support the @MayorofLondon campaign to #HelpRoughSleepers so no Londoner needs to sleep rough. Find out how you can help a rough sleeper too https://t.co/YLGwzif2uk pic.twitter.com/6i4NG4mGAL
— Centrepoint (@centrepointuk) December 15, 2017
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The Mayor launched the campaign today (15 December) on a visit to start work on the new permanent hub in Hackney, which is for the No Second Night Out service, which provides a rapid response to assess the needs of new rough sleepers and give them an offer so they do not have to sleep out for a second night. The hub should be open and ready to help people off the streets early next year. In the spring, work will start on a second hub and a staging post, both in Lewisham, that will provide short-term accommodation for people the hub can’t help immediately.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said:
“I know there are millions of Londoners who want to do something to help rough sleepers get off the streets for good. That’s why I am pleased to be joining forces with our new coalition of charities dedicated to this cause, offering a single donation point for Londoners who want to give money to those who need help the most. I urge Londoners to donate and join me in helping people sleeping on our streets to connect with vital services.
“As Mayor, I am investing in services right across the capital and doing everything within my power to tackle this issue. But the government also needs to play its part by providing additional funding so that we can boost much-needed services in London, and by tackling the long-term causes of homelessness and rough sleeping.”
Howard Sinclair, Chief Executive of St Mungo’s, said:
“St Mungo’s is proud to have provided the No Second Night Out service since its inception in London and, through it, helped thousands of people to move away from the streets as soon as possible. Five years of temporary premises, however, has been very challenging for the service so we very much welcome the Mayor backing the need to get NSNO hubs on a permanent footing. The new hubs, in Hackney and Lewisham, will help transform the service NSNO staff are able to provide and result in many more people, we hope, being able to rebuild their lives.”
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.