UK charity pays for homeless to stay in London hotels for Christmas

Homelessness charity Crisis has paid for 517 hotel rooms at four London hotels to house the homeless over Christmas.

The charity received cheaper rates by the London Hotel Group for cheaper rates, the Daily Mail reported.

The homeless will enjoy a two-week stay in a hotel over Christmas with three meals a day and a special virtual surprise from Imelda Staunton, Jonathan Pryce and Ellie Goulding who will be part of a Christmas quiz on December 25.

There’s also a special app that will allow residents to stream entertainment from a phone. It will also let them know when health services can be used in the hotel.

The publication revealed that the reason for housing the homeless at these hotels as they were unable to use large-scale dormitories due to the pandemic.

Head of Crisis at Christmas at Crisis UK Ian Richards told The Sunday Times: that they usually run 10 centres with 4 000 guests and 12 000 volunteers.

He said they had to “reinvent the wheel from scratch.”

The hotel stay comes at a time when many people have suffered job losses or short-lived evictions.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), about 36 690 households were classified as being homeless between January and March this year.

Daily Mail also reported that in the first lockdown, 15 000 fully-funded hotel stays were offered to Britain’s homeless.

BBC reported in November that The Prince Rupert in Shrewsbury offered accommodation to the homeless.

Manager Mike Matthews told the publication that all 70 rooms were available for people in need ahead of UK’s second lockdown.

Source link