Local businesses, together with Rotary group members, are rallying around to try to help the homeless and rough sleepers in Croydon this winter.
Southern House: barriers have been placed to deter rough sleepers from using what little shelter they could find here
For a second year, an appeal to help the homeless in Croydon is being led by local funeral directors JB Shakespeare.
Shakespeares are asking for the public to make donations of washing items, via the Crisis Skylight Centre in Surrey Street. Shakespeares ran a similar appeal last year, which they say received “a phenomenal response”.
JB Shakespeare in Wellesley Road in central Croydon, or at 175 Selsdon Park Road, are collecting points for donated items – such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, shower gel, shampoo, sanitary items, face cloths.
According to the managing director of the town centre-based business, Chris Dighton, “The eye-wateringly expensive homes in the sky keep going up, but at street level, things have got worse for the rough sleepers in Croydon.
“There are virtually no public toilet facilities, the ledges along Southern House in Wellesley Road, where some homeless slept last winter, have been made totally inhospitable by lumpy barriers.
“Money has been spent chasing away the homeless rather than extending a helping hand.
“The legacy of such action doesn’t contribute to making the town better, kinder or more decent.
“Yet we know from the great response last year that as individuals, Croydon people are all of those things.”
The posters that have gone up in Shakespeares funeral homes
Croydon Rotary are also providing fund-raising tea towels to raise money for Crisis – a £10 donation can be made at Shakespeares’ funeral homes for the Croydon Cares appeal.
The appeal will run until December 18.
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