“If everybody starts making a small contribution, it can make a big difference.”

How Glasgow businesses are coming together to tackle homelessness.

Homelessness in Scotland has reached crisis point with 36,465 homeless applications being made within the last year alone – the equivalent of a household becoming homeless every 18 minutes. That’s according to Shelter Scotland.

With many of the homeless asking for change in a cashless society, it can be hard to know how to help them, especially during winter as the weather gets harsher.

However local businesses in Glasgow are coming together to tackle homelessness, urging the public to share the message that a simple smile can go a long way.

Lauren Garnish, assistant manager at Social Bite said:

“We’re a social enterprise where all our profits go towards different missions such as ending homelessness.

“We have a ‘pay it forward’ scheme where you pay for a coffee or hot meal through the till as normal but you don’t take it away, you leave it behind for someone else. It’s not a physical thing but if someone comes in wanting a hot drink or meal, that’s where the scheme would come in.

“Our café is open to the public but we give out free food to people experiencing homelessness so the money we get from here, and the ‘pay it forward’ goes towards that and provides food for the people we help.

“In the mornings we get around 40 people coming for free breakfast and for the dinners it can range from 50 to 70 people.

“I’ve worked here for three years and I still see the same people from all those years ago but at least we’ve become a safe space for people.”

Social Bite continuously finds ways to raise money in order to keep providing for the less fortunate, and one of these is through an annual event called ‘Sleep Out’ which is held in over 52 countries which sees more than 50,000 people sleep in various locations outside in order raise money and awareness of homelessness.

Their co-founder, Josh Littlejohn announced the recent sleep out, held on Saturday (December 7) was the last as he begins to focus on local charity work.

Having raised £7.6 million through the event, Lauren said:

“We’ve done this now for three years so I think next year they’ll change it up. A lot of our volunteers went to it and said it was a lot bigger this year than it was the previous year.”

Most of us will see at least one homeless person as we walk through the city centre, many often-avoiding eye contact with them out of guilt, but Lauren says you don’t have to reach into your pocket in order to help.

“I think we just need to acknowledge people” she emphasised.

“They’re sitting on the streets begging and no one is talking to them. They come in and I can ask someone how they are and they’re a bit taken aback as if they’ve not been asked that in ages – so even if you’ve not got money to give someone just stand and have a chat or smile when you’re walking past.

“People think they can’t give money to everyone, but you don’t have to give money at all.”

Social Bite now has the backing of many high-profile figures including Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, Malala Yousafzai and Leonardo Di Caprio and distribute over 140,000 items of food and hot drinks every year to the country’s most vulnerable.

“We mainly see 90% men and 10% women but there’s a mixture of ages. A young guy came in, he was around 20 and was told by a shelter that we do free food” Lauren said.

“He had been homeless for over a year because his family left him and he didn’t know that because he was a certain age, he was entitled to accommodation and all these different benefits that people aren’t made aware of.

“So within 24 hours, we got him into a hostel and we never saw him again, but in a good way – and that’s just a classic case.”

Muhammad Sultan who runs Charcoals, an award-winning Indian restaurant in the heart of the city has also been helping the homeless for over three years.

“We hand out free food between three and four every Monday and Tuesday and near the winter we try to give some gloves, hats, jackets and sleeping bags.”

Similarly to Lauren, Mohammad often sees a mixture of ages, most of which are the same faces. He said:

“There is an increase at this time of year but sometimes when people don’t come to our restaurant, we usually go down to their place and we give it to them – sometimes in the night I go myself and give out food to them if they’re not able to come up.”

“These people should have shelter housing at the very least where they can have a good sleep. If everybody starts making a small contribution, it can make a big difference. The general public is very good and our customers are the supporters as well.

“My heart cries for many things, so when I go out in the night I do as much as I can, I can’t ignore them.”

Muhammad also believes the council can do a lot more. He said:

“They should have done so many things and there are still empty buildings here in the city centre. I’m not a politician so I don’t want to criticise anyone but they need think to themselves how it feels.

“I will try my best until my last breath and do as much as I can to help them because everyone is the same – religion comes later, I don’t care about that – humanity comes first.”

We are all one redundancy away from being homeless and with a 3% rise in homelessness applications in Scotland, it is time we act now before more people are subjected to a life with no dignity.

https://youtu.be/pZ0TlE933Zg

By Sophie Buchan.