Faith in Action update

We thought you would like to know what’s been happening at Faith in Action’s Wimbledon Homeless Drop-in.

Nearly all of our homeless service users continue to be in hotel accommodation in various parts of London while the lockdown continues.  Last week we opened the Drop-in for the first time since March on both Wednesday 3 and Friday 5 June for pre-arranged appointments with existing homeless service users. These were conducted by FiA staff located in the office, hall and church, following strict social distancing guidelines. We have a supply of 500 face masks and 50 face shields, and although it is hard to buy protective gear, we have enough to last at present. 

One of our lovely volunteers was on hand to disinfect surfaces, hand out packed lunches, and on Friday, offer tea or coffee.  We saw 15 people on the Wednesday and 12 on the Friday.

We have had to be extremely flexible in our dealings with people, as many appointments were not kept, and issues sometimes arose from mail that needed immediate action. 

We will be open again this week (both Wednesday and Friday) for pre-arranged appointments only and plan to continue with this pattern of Drop-in opening for now, in line with government guidance. As libraries and Job Centre computers are not available at the moment, we will also be making our internet-enabled laptops available to people. 

Faith in Action Merton Homelessness Project
Website: www.mertonfaithinaction.org
Twitter: twitter.com/mertondropin
Facebook: facebook.com/mertondropin