We have been collating a list of needs from organisations and accommodation providers who are supporting people who are homeless, and receiving a number of donations from businesses that are now stored in a central warehouse.

We wanted to make a decision at a network level about how that distribution happens, to make sure it is efficient and meets people’s needs as best we can. In order to do that we hosted an open zoom call, and those that came discussed and agreed together a process to trial. You can see the current plan for deciding on distribution here, and this will evolve as the panel meet and work through examples. There will also be a feedback mechanism set up so that people from outside of this can raise issues, concerns and suggestions.

The next stage is to gather a panel that will meet weekly online to agree on how to distribute items currently in the warehouse. We want this group to represent a range of perspectives, including for people in hotels, in other temporary accommodation, still sleeping outside, strategic leaders, frontline organisations, and different localities. If you would like to nominate yourself or someone you know to represent one of these perspectives and is willing, please email us at gm-covid@streetsupport.net by the end of Friday. We will send a further update early next week based on what we get back.