Hot dinners were available every evening Photo: Trish Carn
Quaker Homeless Action fields two Christmas shelters
Concern about homelessness grows
Christmas 2010 saw a new enterprise undertaken by Quaker Homeless Action (QHA) in central London. A youth shelter was pioneered in anticipation of further needs arising in 2011 as the cuts to housing benefit and other benefits bite. According to the Shelter website: ‘Under the current rules, if you are single, under the age of twenty-five and rent from a private landlord, you will normally only be entitled to enough housing benefit to cover the average cost of a single room in a shared house in your area. This is the case even if you have a place of your own. This rule is often known as the “single room rent restriction”… this restriction will be extended to under thirty-fives – it has not yet been announced when this will happen.’
