By Elli Collins, Emily Boon, Amelle El Ahmadi and Francesco Fiori
When the clocks changed to midnight on 1 st January 2020, the world had no idea what was about to hit it. With COVID-19 changing everyone’s lives forever, some people are definitely more worse off than others.
As many businesses have had to close their doors due to a loss of customers, many workers have been made redundant. Some have not only lost their jobs, but also their homes.
Winter is the toughest month for people sleeping rough, and COVID-19 certainly didn’t help the situation.
According to Centre for Homelessness Impact, “between April and June 2020, 4,227 people were recorded as sleeping rough in London, +33% increase compared to the same period in 2019″.
A video on homelessness made by the BBC features Kris, who has been homeless for 10 years. In the video, Kris says: “I’m basically living of one meal a day at the moment. My daily income has gone from just about getting by, to really struggling.”
St Mungo’s is a charity tackling homelessness crisis in London, which has been made worse due to the pandemic. The charity works with a diverse range of apprentices, workers and team.
“Since March, we have helped 2,914 people who were rough sleeping or in communal night shelters to isolate safely,” said Laura O’Hara, the press and PR manager at St Mungo’s.
“This is the peak time for our volunteers working in south London and the pandemic has only made things worse.
“We are doing all we can for rough sleepers, the pandemic has made out jobs 10x harder, but with everyone’s donations we are hoping to decrease homelessness in London soon.”
With more and charities and initiatives being set up every day, and people constantly donating, it can mean the number of rough sleepers in London can slowly start to decrease.
If you know someone who might be affected by the issues raised in this article, please contact St Mungo’s on 020 3856 6000, or at info@mungos.org.
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