Kitchen’s handouts rocketing

WAITING Hundreds queue for food

JUST behind Trafalgar Square at least 300 homeless people queue for food handouts from volunteers at a row of trestle tables.

Most were calm and grateful for the tea or coffee and the hot pasta, soup and sandwiches, given by local shops instead of being thrown away.

Others were agitated, and wolfed down their meal in shop entrances so they could return to where they had left their sleeping bag.

Some passers-by looked at the scene with astonishment.

Among the homeless at the Rhythms of Life street kitchen was Ben, 43, originally from Essex but sleeping rough for 14 years.

He has been put up in a hotel for the past three months but has his sleeping bag and blankets ready as he expects things to change soon.

DIFFICULTY

But he said: “The coronavirus crisis has made people realise we are here and that we need help.”

Danny, 54, is still sleeping rough as friends cannot let him stay, fearing they will be fined for breaking Covid rules.

Former rough sleeper Andrew Faris, who founded Rhythms of Life, said: “Figures have gone up from about 80 in the queue to between 200 to 250 every day, and a lot of them are in real difficulty.

“A lot of the hotels that were providing emergency temporary accommodation are no longer available for the homeless guys.

“Social distancing means fewer people are allowed in hostels… because they would be too close. We see a lot of people in the queue who we never saw before. Some of them are travelling long distances.”