Charity CARIS Haringey has been awarded £110,000 to help feed the borough’s homeless.

City Bridge Trust, the City of London Corporation’s charitable funder, awarded the money to pay for the charity’s food parcel project.

Funding will also cover an advice service helping people at risk of homelessness and living in poverty, fleeing domestic abuse, or accessing benefits.

Haringey has 3,000 homeless families and 5,000 children living in temporary accommodation - one of the highest rates any UK borough.

Last year CARIS Haringey saw a rise in demand for its services, with 100 new referrals.

Dhruv Patel, Chairman of the City of London Corporation’s City Bridge Trust Committee, said:

“Homelessness is increasing across the capital and it is bigger than the resources of any one authority.

“Our grant to CARIS Haringey will help give the borough’s homeless population access the help they so desperately need.

“Together we are supporting vulnerable people to have a better future, providing advice and access to life-changing services.”

Gloria Saffrey-Powell, Director of CARIS Haringey, said:

“We see many families living in the private sector in unsecured accommodation at the mercy of unscrupulous landlords.

“Over the past year, we have helped hundreds of these families in different ways.

“Our legal advice and advocacy is a lifeline and our English classes help parents to gain crucial skills.

“We enable children to learn and play through drop-ins, a mobile toy library, summer play schemes, Christmas parties. Our food parcels are vital to ensure no child goes hungry.”

CARIS Haringey has been working with homeless families since the 1990s and has been a key voluntary sector partner to the London Borough of Haringey over this time.

City Bridge Trust is the funding arm of the City of London Corporation’s charity, Bridge House Estates. It is London’s biggest independent grant giver, making grants of £20 million a year to tackle disadvantage across the capital. The Trust has awarded around 8,000 grants totalling over £400 million since it first began in 1995. It helps achieve the City Corporation’s aim of changing the lives of hundreds of thousands of Londoners.

ENDS

Media Enquiries

Kristina Drake

Media Officer, City of London Corporation

Kristina.Drake@cityoflondon.gov.uk

07710860884 / 020 7332 1125

Notes to editors

About the City of London Corporation:

The City of London Corporation is the governing body of the Square Mile dedicated to a vibrant and thriving City, supporting a diverse and sustainable London within a globally successful UK.

www.cityoflondon.gov.uk 

About City Bridge Trust

City Bridge Trust is the funding arm of Bridge House Estates, a Registered Charity, with its primary aim the maintenance and support of five Thames bridges: Tower Bridge, London Bridge, Southwark, Blackfriars and the Millennium footbridge.

City Bridge Trust was established in 1995 to make use of funds surplus to bridge requirements and provides grants totalling around £20m per year towards charitable activity benefitting Greater London. The City of London Corporation is the sole trustee of the Bridge House Estates.