A local housebuilder is helping homeless people stay warm in the cold, dark winter nights.
Ashberry Homes has donated £500 to The Bus Shelter MK which provides rough sleepers in Milton Keynes with a place to stay.
The charity, which started providing the homeless a bed on a refurbished double decker bus, now uses a converted shipping container to offer rough sleepers a refuge from the cold.
Pam Williams, chair of the trustees at The Bus Shelter MK, said: “This very generous and much-appreciated donation comes at a very opportune time. The street is no place to find yourself sleeping out overnight and in winter it is particularly harsh and often injurious to health.
“We are finding that more and more people are, through a combination of factors, finding themselves sleeping rough on the streets with no place to call home and not even a bed for the night. At our charity, we do not receive assistance with any form of funding and we are therefore wholly reliant on donations.
“This fabulous gesture from Ashberry Homes will help us keep going at a time when it has never been more important for us to be around to offer a helping hand. We have the space to offer nine homeless people a place to stay and call home.
“What we typically do is work with a homeless person for three or four months and assist them with their problems. It could be an issue with their finances or their health or a difficulty in claiming benefits. We are able to give them some stability and assistance and maybe help them secure employment, although an increasing number of homeless people have jobs but not a home.
“This donation will pay our electricity bill for a month which will provide heat and warmth to nine homeless people who are in dire need of help.”
Ashberry Homes is building 102 new properties at The Wavendon Collection, off Newport Road in Milton Keynes.
Zoe Dobbs, Sales Manager for Ashberry Homes, said: “We are more than happy to support such a worthy cause which helps people at the lowest point in their lives.
“At Ashberry Homes, we pride ourselves on not only creating quality houses but playing a positive and active part in the local communities where we build. When we heard about the amazing work being done by The Bus Shelter MK, we knew we had to do something to help.
“It is gratifying to know that our donation will go to help keep homeless people in Milton Keynes warm and safe during the freezing cold winter nights.”
To find out more about the charity and how you can help click here or to find out more about new homes being built by Ashberry Homes click here.
