Teenager Makes Personal Hygiene Kits For Homeless People

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Rohan Mehta started developing his initiative In The Bag when he was 15, reports MyLondon.

A West London teenager has turned his parents’ living room into a makeshift processing centre for toiletry bags after his initiative that provides hygiene kits to homeless people took off. Rohan Mehta was given the Young Achiever award by Kensington and Cheslsea Council and recognised with a civic honour by Hammersmith and Fulham Council for his work in helping rough sleepers in London.

The 17-year-old Latymer Upper School student, who is currently studying for his A Level exams, founded In The Bag, a voluntary initiative handing out cost-free hygiene kits to the homeless from leftover airline toiletry bags, two years ago. The life-changing kits are packed with essentials like soaps, shampoo, a toothbrush and toothpaste. They also include a printed heartfelt note reminding recipients they are seen and valued and a short handbook outlining job-seeking skills. The philanthropic teen said homelessness had always been an issue that really affected him.

He said: “When I was really small and I’d see someone homeless on the street, I would ask my parents, ‘Oh, could we give them a little bit of money to get some food, or buy them something to eat?’ I always knew I wanted to do something to be part of the solution so when I got a little bit older, I thought, what tangible stuff could I do?”

Rohan approached several homeless shelters, organisations and charities in his local area and asked them what they needed. The overwhelming response was for basic toiletries. He said: “It’s very hard for [rough sleepers] to get their hands on basic toiletries and that’s where the idea started. I wanted to create something practical that could really help people, not just raise awareness, but give them something that could make them feel a little bit better, give them back some of their dignity, that’s why I wanted to start In The Bag.”

Rohan was only 15 when he began developing In The Bag. He started by repurposing leftover airline kits his dad had got from travelling but quickly realised they lacked essentials and began collecting donations from dentists and hotel chains near his West London home. His family’s living room quickly became inundated with shower gels, shampoos, conditioners, toothbrushes and toothpaste. Rohan said when certain items weren’t in stock, he’d be “creative”. He tailored kits according to the needs of each organisation he supplied and eventually replaced airline bags with drawstring pouches purchased from Amazon because they were easier for rough sleepers to carry around.

He also included pens, socks and earplugs. The teen said: “I wanted to focus on something with daily hygiene. When you’re homeless, you don’t have access to a lot of these things and when you’re able to stay in a shelter overnight, for example, if you’re able to clean yourself up properly, it makes you feel a lot better. When I started studying economics, I started getting this idea of a job-seeking element to this and the whole cycle of poverty and I realised how incredibly difficult it was to break that. You really cannot have a job interview if you do not look presentable and clean and to feel clean, so I wanted to do my part in sort of breaking that barrier because it’s really, really difficult.”

To date, Rohan has donated around 130 bags and turned his family’s living room into an assembly line in the process. He said the family spends a lot of time separating donations and placing items into bags. Included in those kits are printed notes saying things like ‘We see you, we care about you’ or ‘We hope this brightens your day, tomorrow will be a better day’. Rohan said: “I just think it’s really, really important, when we’re donating, to remind people we care about them because that is, in essence, the whole part of the bag. We want to remind people that we see them.”

His efforts have been recognised by two London councils. In March, he was handed the Young Achiever’s Award by the Mayor of Kensington and Chelsea. In April, he was given a civic honour by Hammersmith and Fulham Council for his contributions to building a stronger, safer, kinder borough. He said: “I feel really, really grateful and humbled. It’s honestly such a privilege to receive and be recognised for the work and helping the vulnerable in our communities but what I’m most excited about is that the recognition draws attention to the issue of homelessness and how all the young people can get involved in their own communities.”

Councillor Will Lane, Mayor of Kensington and Chelsea, said: “It was a privilege to celebrate the 2025 Mayor’s Awards winners for their commitment, passion, and selflessness, helping those in their communities by putting others first. These exceptional people and organisations enrich the lives of everyone who lives, works, studies, or visits our borough, Kensington and Chelsea. I was 29 years old when elected as the youngest ever Mayor of Kensington and Chelsea, so I found particular joy in reviewing the nominations for the Young Achiever category. I am also thrilled to share we had a record number of honourees in this group this year, proof that the future of our borough is a bright one.”

London Desperately Needs More Family Homes

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Florence Eshalomi MP said at least 90,000 social homes need building per annum to tackle the crisis, reports MyLondon.

A South London MP in charge of a parliamentary housing committee says the biggest change needed to address the housing crisis is building more family-sized properties. Florence Eshalomi MP, who runs the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, said according to data provided by Shelter, Crisis and Savills, at least 90,000 social homes need building per annum to tackle the crisis. However there’s a particular need for family-sized homes to get children out of temporary accommodation (TA) and reduce housing waiting lists.

The Vauxhall and Camberwell Green MP told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “I’ve pressed the Deputy Prime Minister on the 1.5m [housing target], how many are going to be social affordable homes. It’s important we get those figures because then that can help key areas including London to deliver on those targets.”

It comes as new analysis from think tank Centre for London found three in five London renters said rent was unaffordable to them personally, while over half of respondents (55per cent) said rent was one of the top three biggest problems with London’s housing market. The think tank also found the upfront costs of meeting London’s annual housing targets was an estimated £2.2 billion. These upfront costs – an estimate of the combined costs of the Building Safety Levy, Section 106, Community Infrastructure Levy and planning fees in London – are 43 times higher than the West Midlands, and 36 times higher than Greater Manchester. This is believed to be putting off developers from building affordable homes in the city. Separately, a report by London Councils revealed 90,000 children are currently living in temporary accommodation in London. This equates to one child in every classroom living in TA.

Antonia Jennings, Chief Executive at Centre for London, said it was clear the government needed to face London’s housing crisis head on. She said: “The problems are both acute and foundational. The solutions must be both immediate and long-term. The changes made thus far are encouraging – we’ve seen increased investment in the Affordable Homes Programme, planning reform that allows building on low-quality sections of the green belt and the new Renters Reform Bill. But, these are only the very first steps. We urgently need ambitious solutions that respond to the scale of the challenges facing the capital. From historic levels of homelessness to the sky-high costs of building new homes, the Government must get behind London’s leaders and invest in the capital to finally turn the corner on the housing crisis.”

The LDRS has previously covered how households in Ms Eshalomi’s constituency of Lambeth have expressed alarm at the dwindling number of larger social homes available to bid on, meaning families in need of three or four bedrooms have virtually no chance of finding a suitable home. Many have been on Lambeth Council’s housing register for over a decade. The families, who are either living in overcrowded conditions or staying outside of the borough far from their workplaces and kids’ schools, claim they’re lucky if a single three or four-bedroom flat appears each month. They say the apparent decrease in the number of larger properties available has left them stressed and feeling hopeless about their chances of ever securing a suitable home. One of the residents, Consuelo Gutierrez Collazo, said she has moved between temporary accommodation six times in the 10 years she has been waiting for a council house in Lambeth. The 41-year-old is currently living in an outer London borough with her three children, aged 10, six and four.

Marianela Ramos Apiricio, who has been waiting 11 years for a council house, said the drop in suitable homes appearing through Lambeth’s bidding system was a ‘very bad’ development. The 33-year-old currently pays £1,600 per month for a two-bedroom flat she rents off a private landlord in Wandsworth and shares with her daughter, 13, and son, 11. She said: “At the moment, it’s a struggle. There’s usually just one property that has three bedrooms in a month, sometimes zero. A property a month is not enough for all the people needing one.”

A Lambeth Council spokesperson said at the time: “The shortage of family-sized accommodation and the need to use temporary accommodation is driving our need to make huge savings as a council. Homeless households supported by the council have increased by 50 per cent in the last two years and the cost of housing homeless households in overnight accommodation is expected to reach £100 million this year. It’s not just Lambeth that this is impacting. London Councils have reported that London boroughs are forecast to overspend on their original budget plans for this financial year by more than £700 million. Homelessness represents the largest single driver of London boroughs’ current financial pressures.”

Council Appeals For Landlords To Tackle Housing Crisis

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A London council is calling on private landlords to join its enhanced landlord scheme to provide homes for residents facing homelessness or are living in temporary accommodation, reports property118.

The Royal Borough of Greenwich says that by letting or leasing

properties with it, landlords can help address the borough’s acute housing shortage. The scheme connects individuals on the housing register with private landlords, reducing reliance on expensive temporary accommodations like hotels and bed-and-breakfasts. Currently, fewer than 50 households in the borough are living in such arrangements, a number the council says it is determined to lower further.

The council’s cabinet member for housing management, Councillor Pat Slattery, said: “We’re looking for more private sector landlords to help us tackle the housing crisis by renting or leasing their properties to us for people and families that really need a stable home. Like many London boroughs, the demand for housing far outweighs the supply we have, and this is also true for those households at risk of homelessness or living in temporary accommodation.”

She added: We want people to have access to a safe and secure home that meets their needs, so if you are a landlord with a property to rent or to lease, get in touch with us – we have attractive options and will work with you to provide the homes our residents really need.”

The scheme offers landlords a guaranteed rental income at the Local Housing Allowance rate, with no fees or commissions. For properties needing upgrades, grants of up to £15,000 are available to ensure they meet required standards. Also, the council provides training to help landlords grow their businesses.

For those opting to lease their properties, the council manages tenant sourcing, rent collection and tenancy oversight. Leases come with monthly rent paid in advance, including void periods, with flexible terms ranging from two to five years, or longer agreements of 10 years or more.

New Drug Crisis Causing Misery And Danger On Liverpool Streets

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A new investigation shows Liverpool as one of the worst affected cities by the terrifying drug, reports the Liverpool Echo.

A new opioid crisis is causing a wave of overdoses across the country – with Liverpool thought to be one of the worst affected places in the country. An investigation by new magazine Dispatch has found that nitazenes – which are a synthetic opioids 40 times stronger than fentanly and 500 times more potent than heroin – are leading to large numbers of overdoses in cities and towns across the UK. Dispatch found that the worst-hit local authorities to feel the dangers and impact of these opioid-related overdoses included Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham and Liverpool.

Nitazenes are up to 500 times more potent than heroin and the investigation found they are smuggled into the UK and US from China disguised as Oxycodone, Benzodiazepines and, more recently, heroin. The government has refused to publish data on the prevalence of nitazenes. To get around this, Dispatch sent Freedom of Information requests to every ambulance service in the UK to see where and when they were administering naloxone, which is a drug used by health workers to reverse the impacts of opioids and prevent overdoses. The figures – which covered the use of naloxone across the year of 2024 showed that the worst hit places were Birmingham, with 720 recorded uses, Glasgow (615) and Leicester (507). Liverpool was not far behind with 302 incidences.

Within the city, the worst affected postcodes were L1 with 35 recorded uses of naloxone (perhaps unsurprising as the city centre), followed by L20 and L3 (31 uses), L4 (28) and L8 (26). The ECHO has previously reported on the issues of opioid use and specifically the dangers of nitazenes in the city. We spoke to Robbie Dreha from the YMCA Together organisation in the city, which aims to support issues of homelessness, mental health and drug and alcohol abuse in Liverpool. Mr Dreha said that in recent years the charity has been battling an opioid crisis on the streets of Liverpool. The problem has become hugely exacerbated as opioids are being mixed with nitazenes – a drug that was recently revealed to have been smuggled into the UK inside dog food and catering supplies – to cut costs for dealers. Users often end up taking the hugely powerful drug without knowing.

Mr Dreha said: “There are a lot of synthetic opioids that are becoming readily available in the UK, particularly Liverpool. We’ve sorted incidents where nitazene, an opioid about 500 times stronger than a normal hit of heroin, has been taken. We’ve seen them being ordered from China and in different colours – say brown and blue – and this means dealers can adulterate them to suit the market. This is fatal stuff for people who come into contact with them.”

Nitazenes were developed by researchers around 60 years ago as an alternative to morphine, but because of their high potential for overdose, they were never released.

Speaking about opioid issues in Liverpool and what authorities are doing to address them, Professor Matthew Ashton, Director of Public Health for Liverpool told the ECHO: “Opiate use is a significant issue for many communities, and I want to reassure you that we are taking steps to address this challenge in our city. Liverpool’s preparedness plan includes elements of prevention, intelligence and monitoring, enforcement, treatment, and recovery. Widening and increasing access to Naloxone, a life-saving opioid overdose drug, is a key part of our approach to reducing harm and lives lost due to drug-related overdoses involving substances like heroin or opioids. This work also supports the government’s ambition to prevent nearly 1,000 deaths in England by the end of 2025.”

“We have taken a partnership and proactive approach here in Liverpool to strengthening intelligence around non-fatal overdoses and to highlight the risks to people who use drugs of using drugs alone. With increases in the risk of contaminated drugs we have, we reinforce messages for the need to carry more than one naloxone kit, as multiple/repeated doses may be needed when an overdose occurs. We will also continue to boost training to those who need it in as many settings as possible, such as outreach workers, temporary accommodation, services working with people who use drugs, to ensure staff are familiar with the signs of overdose and how we can reduce risks and in the use of naloxone to save lives in the event of an overdose.”

He added: “We have laid the groundwork for sustainable, long-term improvements by recently re-commissioning existing separate drug and alcohol services into a single service model. The new service ‘River’ is an all-age integrated service providing confidential, tailored pathways for adults and young people that addresses both treatment and recovery. It promises a visible, accessible, and inclusive service, tailored to meet the needs of people and their families, committed to working collaboratively to make Liverpool a safer and healthier place for all.”

Councils Fear Bankruptcy Amid Homelessness Crisis

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Homelessness represents the “single biggest risk” to council finances and may cause effective bankruptcy, according to the organisation that represents London boroughs, reports the BBC.

London Councils, a cross party group that represents all 32 boroughs and the City of London, estimated that councils in the capital had been forced to overspend on their homelessness budgets by at least £330m in 2024-25. Local authorities have a legal duty to provide temporary accommodation to anyone who qualifies as homeless – the number of which has risen in recent years. The government said it was tackling the root causes of homelessness by building homes and abolishing section 21 no fault evictions.

Councils in London said the subsidy they receive for temporary accommodation costs from the government did not compare with the actual financial burden. In 2023-24, the gap was about £96m, but London Councils estimated the gap for 2024-25 reached £140m – a 45% increase. The group said if the trend continued, more boroughs would need emergency support from the government and face effective bankruptcy.

The number of homeless Londoners has reached the highest level ever recorded with about 183,000, or one in 50 residents, London Councils said. Collectively, the boroughs spend £4m daily on temporary accommodation. Costs have spiked due to fewer rental properties available and an increased use of hotels. London Councils has called for urgent national policy action in the government’s Spending Review to reduce homelessness pressures and to help councils.

The government is set to conclude its review, which will determine levels of investment in public services for the coming years, in June. It is also preparing a new national strategy on homelessness. London Councils’ executive member for housing and regeneration, Grace Williams, said any potential bankruptcy of local councils could bring “massive uncertainty” to the future of communities’ local services. “It could ultimately mean more costs to the government when emergency interventions are required,” she said. “We need urgent action from ministers,” she added.

A spokesman at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, said: “We inherited a serious housing crisis which is why we are taking urgent and decisive action to end homelessness, fix the foundations of local government and drive forward our Plan for Change. This government is providing £1 billion for crucial homelessness services and tackling the root causes of homelessness by building 1.5 million new homes, boosting social and affordable housing and abolishing section 21 no fault evictions.”

Homeless Veterans ‘Get Lives Back In The Kitchen’

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An army veteran has said says cookery session put on to teach life skills have given men “their life and independence back”, reports the BBC.

Those living in Imjin House in Gloucester, a facility for homeless veterans, are learning critical life skills in a joint partnership with two other charities in the city. Roy Smith, a veteran and Imjin House resident, worked in logistics when he was in the army but had previously worked as a chef. He said the session helps the men “in a lot of ways – more than people realise”.

Wiggly, a Gloucester-based charity that provides inclusive cookery tuition has partnered with Alabare, a charity that helps people overcome the barriers of homelessness and mental health to put on the sessions. Veterans get the chance to prepare healthy breakfast options using tinned items commonly found in their pantries.

Mr Smith said: “The cooking today – its important because there’s some people who don’t know how to cook. They get some of their life back, they get some of their independence back.” Mr Smith said many of the veterans had “struggled” to get a hot meal in the past.

He added: “Without stuff like this people would be sat in their rooms doing nothing or not interacting with people. “It’s really important for the guys because sometimes they don’t have the interaction and they’re out of their comfort zone.” Ian Harris, a retired British Army Colonel, said: “As an ex-military person, knowing the need for veterans to become independent through times of difficulty, this session been superb to witness.”

Claire Foot, general manager of Wiggly charity, said many of the veterans were working on transitioning back to civilian life and are often “living on very low incomes and accessing food pantries”. “These sessions are designed to use the kind of food they can access and to build their skills so they can look after themselves in the future,” she added.

Paralympic Champion Faced Homelessness After No-Fault Eviction

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Megan Giglia, who won gold for Team GB in track cycling at the 2016 Paralympics, told the BBC she and her nine-year-old child had to leave her rented Stockport home in March after being given notice by her former landlord.

After seeking help from Stockport Council’s homelessness prevention services, she has moved into a hotel funded by Stockport Homes while she applies for homes on the housing register. The provider, which manages the authority’s social housing, said it knew the situation was “distressing and frustrating” and had done everything to help. Giglia suffered a stroke and brain haemorrhage in 2013 left her with weakness on her right side and difficulties with balance.

Stockport Homes said she needed a level access flat or bungalow with a level access shower after an independent assessment of her medical needs. However, she said she disagreed over the type of social housing property she needs and would be happy with a house with stairs. “They’re not allowing me a choice,” she said. She said she was at a loss as to how the situation had come about. “I just don’t know how I’ve ended up in this,” she said. “I get severe headaches from the stress of it all. It’s not great, but I manage because I have to.”

She said the situation had also impacted her sporting career and she had to leave a talent academy for the British shooting team where she was aiming to compete at the “highest level”. The 40-year-old moved to Greater Manchester from Kent for access to sports and training facilities. Her win in Rio de Jainero was Team GB’s first medal of that event and came just months after she won two golds at the UCI Para-cycling World Championships. She was made an MBE in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to cycling.

A Stockport Homes representative said decisions around housing offers were “never taken lightly”. “Sadly, this challenge isn’t unique to Stockport,” they added. “Unfortunately there simply isn’t the accommodation available in the numbers needed to meet the demand.”

London Homelessness Centre Forced To Turn Young People Away

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New Horizon Youth Centre provides a ‘vital’ service to young people facing homelessness in the capital, including emergency accommodation, advocacy and advice reports the Big Issue.

London’s only day centre for young people facing homelessness has had to close its services for new clients as a result of “impossibly high numbers” needing help. New Horizon Youth Centre has supported young people aged 18 to 24 who are unsafe or homeless in the capital for more than 60 years, providing “vital” drop-in help to those with nowhere else to turn. But with the charity facing “unprecedented” demand, it will now have to turn young people away.

“Over the last three years, much like other homelessness service, we have seen growing demand on a weekly basis and despite efforts to limit the numbers of new young people we see each day, in less than the months we have seen impossibly high numbers of new and returning young people in desperate need of housing support,” New Horizon Youth Centre announced on social media. We appreciate this means having to turn away young people in need and we are truly sorry for the negative impact this will have on some people. This is not a permanent change, and we hope to return to accepting new young people as soon as possible.” Before the pandemic, the charity had between 35 and 40 young people accessing the drop-in service each day, but last week it saw nearly double this number. In particular, the numbers of new people needing help from the service has been “challenging”.

Meghan Roach, director of operations at New Horizon Youth Centre, explained to the Big Issue that the charity saw increasing demand throughout 2024. In January, it became “unprecedented”. “Even though we’ve grown our staff team slightly, we still have the same physical space that we’ve always had, and the staff team is still fairly light in terms of how many young people we can process,” Roach said. “We need to make sure that we can support everyone adequately, and with the length of time it can take people to support, we just couldn’t keep up with that level of demand. It’s a lot harder now to move people on into long-term accommodation. It takes a lot longer than previously. There are not as many options out there.”

Roach has worked at New Horizon Youth Centre for seven years, during which they have never had to stop supporting people, except briefly during the pandemic while arranging to see people remotely. “It’s difficult, because there are still new people presenting who are rough sleeping or in unsafe situations. We have to balance that with whether we can safely support everyone that’s already registered with us,” Roach added. “We want to help as many people as possible make sure we can deliver a quality service to them, but we can’t be the only service for young people in London.”

New Horizon Youth Centre helps thousands of young Londoners every year, supporting them to secure long or short term accommodation, providing them with life skills and helping them access health support. One client, Daniel, said: “When I first arrived at NHYC, I didn’t have a job, a place to stay, or even a clear goal to pursue. However, everything started to change when I stepped into the centre. They helped me turn my life around in ways I couldn’t have imagined. They found me a place to stay, supported me with everything I needed, and even helped me secure a job. With their guidance, I also enrolled in college and began working towards my education while holding down a full-time job to keep myself busy and productive.”

Roach said that clients often describe their services as “critical”. “Pretty much anyone that’s under the age of 25 who finds themselves rough sleeping or unstably housed or at risk for any reason will often end up at our door,” she explained. “They often say either it’s because they’ve been turned away from other services or their local authority, or they haven’t been able to navigate the system. We’re one of the last places they might try. What we offer them is vital in terms of providing emergency accommodation, advocacy, support and advice.”

New Horizon Youth Centre has consistently campaigned for the government to invest in a long-term strategy to end homelessness that centres young people in its plans. Roach said: “We can respond to the need as we see it, but there’s got to be greater investment in prevention, so that not everybody needs to end up at a day centre – so that the intervention happens sooner to prevent homelessness.”

Outrage After Activist Feeding The Homeless Given A Police Warning

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A community activist from Croydon who serves home-cooked meals from a shopping trolley to homeless people has been issued with a police warning saying his activities are causing antisocial behaviour, reports the Standard.

Ringo Vision claims to have served over 13,000 meals to those in need in Croydon town centre, and in doing so has attracted millions of viewers online for documenting the borough’s homelessness problem, which he says is ‘different’ from everywhere else he has seen. The Croydon resident has become a local celebrity for pushing around his distinctive supermarket trolley, which acts as a mobile soup kitchen. However, after an incident at Surrey Street Market, the police have warned him about serving food in the town centre. While it doesn’t ban him from doing so, it warns him about any antisocial behaviour resulting from his activities, which has forced him to temporarily pull out of helping Croydon’s homeless.

Ringo told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “Even if there is no ban, why am I being issued with a warning for feeding the homeless? I’m not a criminal, I’m a million miles away from that lifestyle.” The police warning has caused outrage locally, with a petition launched calling for it to be rescinded. The warning was issued after Surrey Street Market became a focal point of his outreach work. It is claimed that the unintended consequence was that incidents of antisocial behaviour began increasing around the market as people accompanying Ringo had got into altercations.

Surrey Street Market stallholder Jose Joseph told the LDRS: “He brought friends, and they were the ones creating the problems a lot of the time. I told him he needed to control that because people respect him and watch him.” It is claimed there were incidents where people were fighting, and someone even briefly stopped the tram from passing. During one particular incident on January 8, several people reportedly gathered around Ringo’s trolley, and were said to be acting aggressively towards other marketgoers and traders. According to Ringo, things got ‘passionate’, and there was a fracas between himself, his followers and marketgoers. This resulted in police attending the market and questioning Ringo. Following this incident, the police issued him a seven-year Community Protection Notice Warning (CPNW).

CPNWs are intended to prevent individuals, businesses, or organisations aged 16 or over from engaging in antisocial behaviour that negatively impacts the community’s quality of life. This can include noise disturbances, unsightly rubbish on private property, and other forms of antisocial conduct. The Metropolitan Police told the LDRS the CPNW was ‘issued to provide a warning so that these issues, which had been negatively impacting the community and local businesses, could be addressed’. They added: “There had been multiple complaints of intimidating behaviour, which was distressing for those affected. The CPNW acts as a warning only, and not as a ban on behaviour which is not considered to be intimidating.”

Ringo has served food to the homeless across the UK and plans to expand his activism to all dozens of UK cities. However, he feels Croydon’s problem is particularly concerning. “Croydon is different,” he told the LDRS. “I think it is because of how many people come across the UK and the world and land here. Some of the conditions they are sleeping in are bad, really bad. They are usually out of sight so that most people won’t notice. I have seen people in the corners of car parks and in tiny gaps in alleyways in Waddon that most people won’t even know are there.” Because Croydon’s extensive homelessness problem is largely hidden from view, he claims there are a lot of people overdosing on drugs without anyone noticing. He added: “Until people go into Croydon and see what is happening, they won’t know how serious the situation is.”

Jamaican-born Ringo has been cooking for over 20 years, but it wasn’t until last year that he felt inspired to take action. “I woke up one Sunday morning with a new mission. I knew I needed to feed the homeless,” he recalls. That’s when he began feeding Croydon’s homeless from his trolley, which he customised based on the handcarts used in rural Jamaica. His meals, including hearty stews and jerk chicken with rice and peas, quickly became a staple in the local community.

Jose said, despite the recent issues: “He is still like family to us. He is doing some great things for the community, but some of the people he brought along attracted fights, it wasn’t the homeless people. “I am not happy they warned him. Even my children have signed his petition because we don’t want him to stop what he is doing.” The petition, which has over 2,000 signatures, calling for him to be allowed to feed the homeless without any threat of police action, reads: “Despite being single-handedly responsible for providing the only meals some of these homeless individuals might have for days, Ringo was banished from continuing his humanitarian act. Kindness should never be punished, and it’s time our community stood up for what’s right.”

On the day of the police warning, Ringo told the LDRS he was disappointed but not deterred. Instead of giving up, he headed straight to Crawley in West Sussex to camp with the homeless and provide food. Ringo insisted, ‘I’ll be back out’, and vowed to continue serving food to the Croydon community that has come to rely upon him.

Liverpool Rough Sleeping Hub To Operate Through Summer Months

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The service, operated by the Whitechapel Centre, has usually only been used during winter, reports the Liverpool Echo.

A Liverpool rough sleeping hub is to reopen during the spring and summer months to support those facing homelessness. Throughout winter, in partnership with the Whitechapel Centre, Liverpool Council provides a temporary centre for those seeking accommodation. Each year in preparation for winter, the local authority works with partners to ensure there is a range of additional solutions in place during the worst of the winter, including ‘sit-up’ spaces and block-booked hotel rooms. All this provision is aligned to the council’s severe weather emergency protocol (SWEP) response.

Now, a planning application has been submitted to the city’s planning department for a change of use for the existing building near to the city centre between April and July. The documents attached to the application describe the need for the centre to open once more as a “short-term, emergency response to the current housing crisis.” Liverpool’s trend of rough sleeping ticked upward throughout 2024 when compared to the same period 12 months earlier. The average number of people seen each night rough sleeping between April and September 2024 was 30, an increase on the average of 22 people seen per night over the same period in 2023.

Subject to approval, the hub would continue to be delivered by The Whitechapel Centre, which is subject to a comprehensive quality and performance management regime. The Whitechapel Centre is a third sector charitable organisation with significant experience of working with vulnerable individuals who have a “street-based lifestyle” such as people rough sleeping. A planning statement said the hub would be open every night during the four-month period in order to safeguard the health and wellbeing of people who would otherwise sleep rough. The centre will operate until July 31.

Services would be provided from 8pm to 8am daily, with staff onsite outside of those hours to aid opening, closure and cleaning of the facility. Capacity would be limited to 30 people only. The planning statement added: “The facility will be restricted to people sleeping rough only. This means access will be controlled and coordinated via the Outreach Team i.e. people seen by the Outreach Team bedded down sleeping. No direct access will be permitted. “Anyone who has accommodation will not be allowed to access the service.” People assessed as sleeping rough will be permitted to stay overnight in a sit-up style provision until accommodation, or another solution is sourced.