A bus is set to travel from Brighton to the Royal Wedding on the 19th May. While it will be there to wish Prince Harry and Meghan Markle a great day, it’s not the main reason for the journey.
The bus will be there to act as a central hub for homeless people who are expected to travel to the area and join with local homeless people in Windsor.
The bus will provide free water, hot drinks and basic food to homeless people during its stay. It will be manned by volunteers and homeless people from Brighton. The trained volunteers can also offer support and signpost onto other services.
Based in Brighton but with links covering the UK, Sussex Homeless Support (SHS) is a charity helping people in a number of ways.
As well as collecting food and items of clothing and distributing them out daily to people on the streets, SHS provides cooking for the Anti-Freeze Homeless Project (Mondays) and hosts the lively Street Kitchen at the Clock Tower in Brighton on Sundays. The charity also provides supplies to people recently re-housed.
Recently SHS acquired an old double decker bus and converted it to a mobile night shelter. There are ten bunks upstairs and seating and bathroom area downstairs.
Since the bus got up and running it has been full every night. Trained volunteers operate the bus, ensuring that it is a safe and secure place to sleep for men, women and their pets.