WESTMINSTER ABBEY has donated £500,000 to The Passage, a homelessness charity near by, to support its emergency accommodation scheme, No Night Out.
The Abbey said that the funding, which can support the scheme for 2 years, had been possible due to a recovery in visitor numbers because the pandemic.
The Passage has been supporting people liable to homelessness in London for 40 years. Its resource centre in Victoria has helped greater than 2100 people, serving greater than 34,500 hot meals, and giving advice on securing employment, advantages, and secure accommodation.
The No Night Out scheme was created after the Covid-19 lockdowns, when the charity helped to maneuver people into emergency accommodation throughout the Government’s “Everyone In” initiative. The Passage continues to supply temporary accommodation for people liable to spending an evening on the streets while longer-term housing is found.
Since it launched in 2022, the scheme has helped prevent 196 people from rough sleeping, the charity says. Of that number, 13 people needed further intervention to remain in accommodation, five of whom remain homeless.
The latest Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) report from the Greater London Authority, published last month, states that 4118 people slept rough in London between January and March 2024.
The Passage said that the donation had subsequently come at a “crucial time”.
On a visit to its resource centre last week, where staff from the Abbey volunteer recurrently, the Dean of Westminster, the Very Revd Dr David Hoyle, said: “It is a privilege to have the ability to support the focused and dedicated work that is finished by The Passage. Homelessness plunges too many individuals into crisis and anxiety too often. Here is a project that can make the difference that is required.”
The chief executive, Mick Clarke, said that the charity was “immensely grateful” for the donation. “In twenty first century Britain, no one should ever must spend an evening on the streets.
“At a time when the variety of people who find themselves becoming street homeless is continuous to rise in all parts of the UK, and most acutely here within the capital, our partnership with the Abbey and their support for our ground-breaking No Night Out scheme will help The Passage to offer hope to those that thought all hope was lost.”
