Homeless man on the Southbank Photo: AnnieGreenSprings
Rise in homelessness expected
More people are expected to visit Christmas shelters following government cuts
Quaker Homeless Action (QHA) are expecting more people than usual to visit their Christmas shelter this year – as a result of government cuts. ‘I suspect that the numbers of people we encounter this Christmas will be up,’ said QHA’s director, Kate Mellor. She expects to see ‘more people telling us they’ve become homeless because they can’t afford to pay their rent’. She told the Friend that cuts to social housing are a particular problem. They have been exacerbated by funding cuts for charities supporting people in poverty. Kate described the situation as ‘heartbreaking’.
At least twenty-five people are expected to sleep each night at the Quaker Christmas Shelter in Islington, north London, between 23 and 30 December. Around seventy-five usually eat cooked breakfast and dinner there. Some of these are local people who are not homeless but struggle to afford food. The shelter will be staffed by about seventy-five volunteers, working shifts over the seven days. QHA explained that about two-thirds tend to be Quakers, with ages ranging from ‘eighteen to eighty’. A medical attendant will be on hand, along with professional drugs and alcohol advisers.
QHA emphasise that their support for homeless people is not just for Christmas. ‘Once the week is finished, we don’t want to push them out again,’ said Kate. She is ‘very proud’ of QHA’s record of finding other shelters or hostels for people to move on to.
Other Quakers are helping elsewhere. Emily Bishop of Westminster Meeting told the Friend that she is volunteering at a shelter run by the charity Crisis. The group takes over abandoned buildings for the week. ‘It’s like having a really big house and inviting people to stay with us,’ she explained, ‘It really is that simple’.
Emily began volunteering for Crisis the same year that she began attending Meeting. Quakerism has helped her understand that she has ‘things in common with people I might not have thought I had things in common with.’
