6 Simple Ways to Help the Homeless in London

UK charities that help those experiencing homelessness in London and elsewhere do almost unanimously urge the public not to give money on the streets, but there are a lot of other ways to help - even if you don't have the money to donate or the time to volunteer.

According to data from Homeless Link, London accounted for 27% of the total number of rough sleepers in the UK in 2018 despite only 13% of the general UK population living here and this number is only increasing. Even more disconcertingly, the charity Streets of London recently released statistics claiming that average age of death was just 45 for men and 43 for women - compared with the rest of the population's average of 76 for men and 81 for women.

Despite this clear rise, funding cuts have resulted in even fewer specialist support workers being available to help the homeless and to provide the resources needed.

So, while these are not going to entirely fix the homeless crisis in London, here are the 6 things that are easy for us all to do that can make a difference:

Streetlink is a non-profit organisation managed by Homeless Link and St Mungo’s.

You can put in the details of the location (and any other details helpful for identifying someone) of anyone homeless who you come across who believe to be at danger and StreetLink workers help to connect people to local services that can provide them with support.

The organisation's Rapid Response team try to make several attempts to locate or engage rough sleepers referred via StreetLink, so there really is a strong chance that you can help someone out by using the apps or reporting someone on their website.

Centrepoint is a non-profit that provide rooms for the homeless. I try to avoid including "donate money" as a general tip, because giving money to charity really goes without saying as something we could do, but I've included this one as an exception, because sponsoring a Centrepoint room costs just 40p a day.

The charity does great work - helping to support over 15,000 young people every year - and it's an easy way to help that most of us would barely notice come out of our account.

In addition to the rooms that Centrepoint provides, the charity also gives young people access to counselling and helps them to develop the skills needed to boost employment, making it one of the more sustainable solutions.

As a coffee and baked-goods enthusiast, these really couldn't be left out. These cafés, spread across London, all play a part in helping to tackle homelessness in the capital:

- Change Please: these are coffee carts run by members of the homeless community. Workers are paid the London Living Wage and given support for housing and mental wellbeing. There's also a Change Please sit-in coffee shop in Elephant and Castle.

- Rise: a bakery on Brick Lane (with amazing brownies) that works with the charity Providence Row, which has been helping to tackle homelessness in the capital since 1860, to employ and support people who have experienced homelessness.

- Second-Shot Coffee: this coffee shop has "pay it forward system", so you could pre-pay for someone on the street to receive a something to eat/drink. The cafe also employs people living in London who have been affected by homelessness, gives them training and eventually moves them on to permanent, long-term employment elsewhere.

- Cafe from Crisis are training cafés & social enterprises by Liverpool Street and in Finchley Park: like Second-Shot-Coffee, both branches employ and train those who have experienced homelessness, so simply purchasing anything from the cafe has its benefits, but Crisis also partnered with Volcano Coffee Workers to produce an ethically-sourced coffee that is sold in cafes nationwide and can be bought online here.

This is often as easy as reading up on the campaign and signing your name - takes 2 minutes tops, but getting enough signatures is often a necessity for these campaigns to have any impact.

There are places all over the city where you could do this, but I've highlighted a couple here:

- Whitechapel Mission: accepts donations 7 days a week (look on the website for specific details as to what they want, but it's basically everything you would think of). They distributed 34,000 bags of groceries to the homeless in London in 2019 alone.

- Shelter shops: consider donating old clothes etc. to a branch of Shelter's charity shops when you next move/ have a clear out; there are lots of branches spread throughout London, so there's likely to be one near your flat.

Sounds a bit basic to include, I know, but I'd put my hands up and admit that I'm guilty of walking past people on the street and not doing it.

Crisis reported last year that of the homeless they spoke to, 1 in 10 reported having been urinated on in public and over 1/3 reported being deliberately hit on or kicked while sleeping.

Obviously, the vast majority of us would never dream of doing that, but with people experiencing homelessness being so dehumanised on a regular basis, most charities agree that the most simple thing - and the one that we can do with the highest frequency - is to at least acknowledge peoples' presence with a smile and ideally offer food or a drink if possible.