A London church has launched a campaign asking people to buy ‘Oyster’ cards – used on public transport in the city – which are then distributed to “rough sleepers” amid a cold snap in the UK capital.
Oasis Church Waterloo said it launched the appeal as “a last-ditch attempt to protect homeless people from the brunt of this week’s cold weather”.
London’s Underground, known as the Tube, where the Oyster cards can be used. PICTURE: Tomas Anton Escobar/Unsplash
“We are calling on everyone to help buy Oyster cards for rough sleepers who cannot access shelter so that they can at least keep warm on public transport overnight as the snow hits…” the church said on its website.
The church said more than £2,000 was raised last Sunday alone after the church’s pastor, Steve Chalke, appealed to the congregation to donate the price of the coffees they would buy in the coming week. But in a statement on the website, the church said it was now calling on people to donate £20, the first half to cover the cost of the card, the second the costs of the campaign to ensure it gets into the hands of those who need it.
“We are not pretending that this is a solution to homelessness,” Chalke was quoted as saying on the website. “But, this is an emergency. We have to do something to get people off the streets and out of the cold. It is impossible to walk through central London without seeing endless people begging, sleeping under cardboard and trying to shelter from the biting cold wind and freezing rain as best they can. We all pass them. And, if you are anything like me, often with no cash in your pockets, you just don’t know what to do.”
Chalke added that “[w]hatever the rhetoric, in truth there are just not enough accessible beds for everyone who is out there in the cold”.
“And, even if there were, some people have been so abandoned that they just can’t fit into institutional life. So, I am calling on all those of us who are fortunate enough to enjoy a warm home, good food and dry clothes, to give just £20 – the cost of a few coffees – to make what is potential a life-saving difference for someone else.”
The church, which said it also worked on more long-term responses to homelessness and poverty, cited estimates that there were between 2,500 and 3,000 homeless people on the streets in London.
