This year our Christmas Appeal, ‘’The Cost Of Giving’’, is all about supporting the growing number of people affected by homelessness as the cost of living crisis continues to impact our daily lives.
The number of clients accessing Providence Row’s services has doubled in the past few months and we are seeing more and more people who until now would never have thought they could be at risk of becoming homeless.
The cost of living crisis is having a dramatic impact on the number of people who are faced with homelessness. Recently published statistics * show the number of people seen sleeping rough in London has increased by 21 per cent year on year.
Higher rent, food and utility costs are hitting people hard and many find themselves struggling to make ends meet.
At the same time we as an organisation have seen our own costs go up and this is affecting our ability to meet the increased demand on our services. For example, we want to continue to provide nutritious meals to our clients but we are faced with rapid increase in food prices. Recent statistics ** showed that food inflation accelerated strongly to 10.6% in September, up from 9.3%. This is the highest rate of inflation in the food category on record.
So we launched our Cost of Giving Appeal to make sure that we can continue to help everyone who needs our support.
Find out more about how you can help support our Appeal and read the story of one of our clients who became homeless after he could no longer afford to pay his rent and bills here
*Statistics released by City Hall from the GLA-commissioned Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) showing that between April 2022 and the end of September 2022 5,712 people were seen sleeping rough in the capital, an increase of 21 per cent on the same period last year. https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/chain-reports
** Statistics released by the British Retail Consortium, Shop prices continue to rise (brc.org.uk), September 2022.
