For decades, the British charity Crisis has been housing homeless Londoners in conference rooms and dormitories over Christmas. But this year, the spread of the virus has put an end to that. Instead, hundreds of homeless people are being offered a two-week hotel stay over Christmas and New Year, reports the Sunday Times.
The solution has been achieved with the help of several London hotels, who have significantly reduced the prices of hotel rooms – which in many cases are still empty when the British are advised to stay at home. A total of 517 hotel rooms have been booked.
– Normally we would have 10 centres with 4,000 guests and 12,000 volunteers. Then all this came along and we had to stop and reinvent the wheel. We didn't want to do less. Our first aim was to offer as much as we always have, but in a different way, says Ian Richards, head of the Christmas initiative at Crisis, to the Sunday Times.
The hotels will offer three hot meals a day, access to streaming services and a podiatrist. On Christmas Day, there will also be a live virtual Christmas quiz, hosted by actors Imelda Staunton and Jonathan Pryce, and singer Ellie Goulding.
Source.TT
