Contactless 'giving' points launched across London to help the homeless

London Mayor Sadiq Khan tried out a new way to donate to the homeless in London - with contactless card payments
Mayor of London
Bonnie Christian28 November 2018

Londoners will now be able to use their contactless payment cards to donate £3 to help tackle homelessness this winter, the city's mayor said.

More than 90 contactless points will be placed in cafes, cinemas, bars and hotels across the city, where people can donate by tapping their card or mobile device.

The donations will help tackle the “shameful” fact that almost 8,000 people will be sleeping rough on London’s streets this winter, Sadiq Khan said on Wednesday.

The donations will be put into a collective pot and split between 22 homeless charities, which are part of the London Homeless Charities Group.

It's making it easy for generous Londoners to give to charities who are helping rough sleepers," Mr Khan said.

"I think it's shameful in one of the richest cities in the world we've got almost 8,000 people sleeping rough.

"The reality in 2018 is that many of us don't carry cash around, so if we can make it easier for generous Londoners to give by tap-and-go, we should do so."

The contactless points were created by non-profit company TAP London, and the technology was developed by GoodBox, a UK technology startup.

The points were launched in 35 locations in London on Wednesday, with more than 90 expected to go live throughout the city this winter.

Testing a new point outside City Hall, Mr Khan said: "That was easy, wasn't it?"

He said he will also be more than doubling the number of street outreach teams from 10 teams to 27 this winter, and severe weather emergency shelters in all London boroughs will open their doors to homeless people whenever the temperature is predicted to drop below zero, following confusion last year.

"This year if it's the case that it is predicted the temperature will approach zero, all the severe weather emergency shelters will open up across London, which is really important to give rough sleepers that option," he said.

The contactless payments were initially trialled using "boxes" around the necks of homeless people, but these were scrapped amid fears those carrying the boxes could be stigmatised, with Jon Sparkes, chief executive of the homeless charity Crisis saying: "It's dangerous enough to be rough sleeping as it is."

Additional reporting by Press Association.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT