Thames Reach’s outreach teams helped 112 rough sleepers into emergency accommodation during the recent bout of potentially life threatening arctic weather that hit London last week.
Thames Reach’s London Street Rescue service and its four Street Response Outreach teams (SORTs) have been putting out extra shifts in a bid to find and help London’s homeless.
Thames Reach’s outreach teams – which cover 24 London boroughs – took the homeless people it found to the extra beds set up to help the homeless when temperatures drop below zero in the capital.
In London, when temperatures are predicted to drop below zero on three consecutive nights, the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) is implemented, which provides emergency accommodation so that no one dies on the streets due to the cold weather.
The public can help the outreach teams by phoning in sightings of homeless people who they are concerned about on the 24 hour helpline 0870 383 3333.
Jeremy Swain, Thames Reach’s Chief Executive, said: “With more cold weather predicted for next week, I’d like to encourage the public to phone in any sightings of people they see sleeping rough across London so we can get out to them and take them into somewhere safe and warm.
"It can be a life or death matter for those sleeping out on the streets when the temperatures plummet below zero and we have extra shifts of outreach teams out trying to ensure that everybody gets the offer of a bed space.”
The public can support Thames Reach by volunteering for the charity’s London Street Rescue Service or by making a donation which could be used to help a homeless person get their lives back on track by, for instance, paying for a new set of clothes.
