Littlehampton shelter set to serve Christmas dinner for homeless people

The winter night shelter, run by the homelessness charity Turning Tides with Arun District Council, has been open for several weeks.

And on Wednesday and Thursday, volunteers and staff will be putting on festive feasts with all the trimmings for the homeless and rough sleeping community at the United Reform Church in High Street, Littlehampton, where the shelter is based.

Shelter manager Catherine Hill, 37, said it was the first time they had offered such a service in the town.

She said: “We don’t want anyone to be alone on Christmas Day.

“Christmas is an incredibly hard time for people that are homeless.

“Quite often they are missing these family connections and support from loved ones, they may have lost children or relationships, so to come somewhere safe, warm and inviting to have a normal Christmas Day is invaluable.”

To join, visit the shelter’s breakfast club, which is run from the church between 9am and 10.30am.

The night shelter is also a first for the town, with day shelters being run by the charity in previous years.

Catherine said that compared to Worthing, Arun’s rough sleeping problem was worse due to a historical lack of funding. She said: “Worthing historically has had a greater rough sleeping problem but because of funding, in particular with Turning Tides, we have been able to make a real dent in the population. Whereas in Arun, it has been underserviced for quite some time.”

By March, she said the goal was for people visiting the shelter ‘to be supported and empowered to access long-term stable accomodation’.

She said those using the service so far had a range of backgrounds and were homeless for a variety of reasons, including being evicted by their landlords through no fault of their own, substance misuse, mental health issues, domestic violence and cuckooing – the phenomenon whereby drug dealers target vulnerable people and take over their home as a base for their business.

A small team of volunteers and staff members work round the clock to help those that come in. It begins by the team cooking and serving an evening meal and pudding for them, before they watch a film, play games or get help with job or benefits applications. They sleep from 11.30pm to 6.30am and are then woken up with a hot drink and breakfast before they start their day.

Catherine said: “It is a real privilege to be able to make a small difference in empowering someone to change their lives.”

She wanted to thank members of public for their ‘generous donations’, including one couple who brought in a homemade cottage pie.