General

More homeless shelters by Christmas.

30 Nov, 2006

Crisis, the homelessness charity, is to set up seven Crisis Open Christmas centres across London which will be operating between 23-30 December. The Crisis team have already secured several buildings for use by the homeless over the Christmas period and volunteers are being sought to help lay carpets, paint, wire-up and install plumbing in the temporary shelters. The project is part of the No Home campaign marking the 40th anniversary of Ken Loachs TV play Cathy Come Home, which addressed the theme of homelessness for the first time. BBC London is also running a series of programmes and information campaigns to back up the Crisis Open Christmas project in the capital. Roughly 47,000 families and individuals sought assistance with housing from councils in London in the year June 2005-June 2006, of whom 21,140 were designated as homeless and in priority need. For information contact volunteering@crisis.org.uk