How I became involved in the London CityAid

by Jenny Klinche

Over the past year or so, my church, St. Michael's in Bishop's Stortford, has donated a considerable amount of clothes, toiletries and food items for the MRCT London CityAid, without knowing much about what happens on the receiving end.

So having a very 'nosey' personality, I asked Gary Knott if I might accompany one of the trips into London.

I accepted a date in mid-March before I realised I would probably get so cold standing on a street corner late on a Tuesday evening that I would be unable to help anybody.

Fortunately, God bless him, it was a very mild evening when it came round.  There is obviously considerable background work that goes on prior to the van leaving Harlow - collecting bakery items, making sandwiches, sorting clothes, picking up the van, involving more than the six of us who set off after loading everything on.

The driving was uneventful and turning into the back street in Victoria, it all seemed quiet with few people in sight.  However, by the time we drew up and opened the doors, there was a clamoring crowd of young men mostly asking if we had any sleeping bags.

The procedure is to place all the bags of clothing on the pavement and let the chaps sort out what they want themselves, but it was difficult to get the bags from van to pavement and within minutes they were decimated!

Toiletries were distributed in a slightly more orderly fashion from the back of the van so that, hopefully, there is enough for everyone to have something.  Meanwhile, I helped set up a table for serving drinks.  This activity, which comes after the clothes and sticky bun rummage, provides more opportunity to talk to people and find out a little about themselves and their circumstances.  Some of course just cut and run with whatever they can, but most of those I talked with were young economic migrants from East European countries, who are perhaps used to and can handle the homeless way of living.

I was surprised to see very few young, vulnerable adults from this country, nor more than a couple of older men, nor more than 2 or 3 women all evening. I noticed very few with obvious mental health issues, only a couple of inebriates and none with an obvious drug problem.  I'm not sure whether this indicates that better facilities are now provided for the groups I perceived as "the homeless" on the streets of London, or whether they gravitate to another area or provider. Nevertheless, those I did meet seemed grateful for what they received and pleased to see us and talk for a while.

Thanks to Gary, Steve, our seasoned driver, and the others on the team that night, I arrived safely back home around midnight.