As the holiday season approaches and we make plans to share with family and friends, we are ask you to consider those sleeping rough on the streets of London, who will be alone in the cold. We wish to extend our service provision in an attempt to make the holiday season more tolerable for those on our streets. We are hoping to raise funds to ensure we will be there every day throughout the holidays and wish to show that there are people who care. "Nobody, absolutely nobody, should have nobody".
7,581 people slept rough at some point in London during 2014/15, an increase of 16% on the previous year's total of 6,508 but this is more than double the number six years ago. 12% are aged under 25 and 17% are over 65. Relationship breakdown is the largest single trigger of rough sleeping cited by outreach workers, leading to 42% of male rough sleeping.
We offer somewhere warm to be, a hot meal, showers and clean clothing. But, this is only the magnet to get people to come to our door, where our counsellors and advice workers attempt to engage with a goal to offer alternatives to street sleeping. Our biggest sucesses at the holiday season is through reconnection with families and the offer of getting them home.
Our goal is to relieve the suffering of those sleeping rough as well as offering alternatives to sleeping on London's streets. We will be here for those who feel that they have nobody else.
