Staff from housing association Unity Homes and Enterprise have visited the offices of Homeless Street Angels in Leeds to hand over clothes, food and other donations from their Christmas appeal.
Established in 2016, Homeless Street Angels work to get homeless people off the streets and into a stable environment.
Its volunteers provide support in various ways including the provision of food parcels, clothing and other essential items, together with practical help with housing applications and signposting towards housing, social care and healthcare treatment options.
The multi-award winning charity also hands out hot and cold food, clean clothes, toiletries and more to homeless people on the streets of Leeds every Thursday evening as part of its outreach activities.
From right to left: Jolene Pickles, Rajesh Chaukria, Chris Whittaker and Shahzad Ahmed delivering donations from Unity’s Christmas appeal to the Homeless Street Angels in Leeds
Cedric Boston, Unity Homes and Enterprise Chief Executive, said: “Each Christmas, our staff choose a different charity they would like our annual appeal to benefit, and this year Homeless Street Angels comfortably won the vote.
“Homelessness is a challenge nationally and regionally and, unfortunately, the number of people living on the streets of Leeds is on the increase.
“Since the pandemic, it has been very difficult for charities like Homeless Street Angels to receive funding as much of the existing council funding has been diverted to COVID relief and funding is still difficult to get.
“Unity is proud to support their work and hope our donations will help to give many homeless people in Leeds a better Christmas.”
From right to left: Shahzad Ahmed, Rajesh Chaukria and Chris Whittaker with Unity’s Christmas appeal donations to the Homeless Street Angels
Shelley Joyce, Co-founder and Director, Homeless Street Angels, said: “We are grateful to our friends at Unity Homes and Enterprise for their kind and generous donations which will make a real difference to our work in Leeds.
“Christmas can be a challenging time for lots of people, but particularly for the homeless.
“Our volunteers do fantastic work to support them, not just at Christmas but all year round.
“The help of our partner organisations such as Unity means a lot to us and to those who we exist to help.”