In March and April earlier this year, more than 15,000 people were given emergency housing in hotels to protect them from crowded conditions in shelters.
Now we approach some of the coldest months, the options are either the streets or risk the crowded shelters where Corona virus can run rife.
We came across Sleep Pod's emergency housing aid on Instagram and were keen to get involved in their next volunteer build!
A study from New York shows the risk of dying from Covid-19 for people staying in communal shelters was 61% higher than for the general population. - The Guardian
Sleep Pod is a charity co-foundered by Pete Kenyon to offer emergency aid for rough sleepers. Here are a few facts about the Sleep Pods themselves.
"We believe that this winter is likely to see an even greater rise in rough sleeping due to the extreme financial and employment crisis that the pandemic has caused. We are concerned that this winter our streets will see levels of homelessness never seen before. As a charity who build emergency aids for rough sleepers we believe that the demand for Sleep Pods is going to be huge, with this back drop we are undergoing a big fund raise and build project in order to try to fulfil the demand to the best of our abilities." - read more on their FundSurf crowdfund page.
We discovered Sleep pod on instagram and headed to their website to register for their next build. Before Corona Virus they would usually hold these around the UK and the volunteers would come to them but with the restrictions, they now get their volunteers to do home builds.
Once registered for their next drive, you select how many you'd like to build and wait for a collection date. On the date, we were given time slots to collect the unbuilt sleep pods and had to arrive in face-masks.
All of the equipment we needed was then put in the car and off I went!
Building sleep pods at Burnt Soul HQ
Start by watching the Sleep Pod build guide. The first one took a while but once we got the hang of it, i could build one on my own in about 30-40 minutes. The doors are a little tricky and needed to watch that part of the guide quite a few times!
Sleep Pod provide everything you need bar a pair of scissors. The packs include:
Once they're all made and dropped off on the specified drop off date, the Sleep Pod team will
Bea and Robyn making a Sleep Pod
If you're unable to help but still want to get involved then head on over to the Sleep Pod crowdfund page where you can donate towards the raw materials needed to make the pods.
pledged of £50,000 goal (GBP)
For more information on the current homelessness situation here are some sites and articles we found.
Rough sleepers in UK will die without government action, doctors warn - Article from The Guardian
Tens of thousands made homeless despite UK ban on evictions during pandemic - Article from The Guardian
This winter, Covid job losses will hit young people hardest - Blog post on Center Point (Charity for homeless young people)
