Homeless people currently isolating in a new Bristol city centre hostel are to be given personal budgets to help them move on to stable accommodation, thanks to a £5,000 grant raised through TAP for Bristol, the city’s new contactless donation scheme for homelessness.

This is the first donation to be made from funds raised through TAP for Bristol, a network of nearly 20 contactless donation points around the city, set up by the Bristol City Centre Business Improvement District (BID) in partnership with Caring in Bristol last year. People can tap their contactless credit or debit card to give £3. Half of the money raised is being used for homelessness crisis support and half for homelessness prevention work.

The new £5,000 grant will help Bristol mental health charity Second Step set up personal budgets for 50 clients to buy essential items to get set up in new homes after isolating due to the coronavirus outbreak. Support workers will ask clients how they would like to spend the money. Items bought could include mobile phones, clothes, toiletries, all of which are essential to finding work, along with furniture, bedding, kitchen equipment as well as training courses or travel to connect with family, post COVID-19 restrictions.

A second grant of £5,000 will go towards funding a money advisor and a housing advisor to support people at risk of homelessness through Caring in Bristol in partnership with local housing advice service CHAS and debt advice charity Talking Money. The most common factor leading to homelessness in the UK is the loss of a private rented tenancy. The charity has warned that even more people are facing home insecurity, and that there will be a sharp increase in evictions as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. This funding will give capacity to proactively reach out to people who are at risk of losing their home to offer advice and support.

These new grants are being made as TAP for Bristol approaches its second £10,000 donation target, thanks to the generosity of members of the public, who will have donated a total of £20,000 since the scheme launched in September last year.

Reaching the second £10,000 will trigger the next round of grants to local charities supporting people in Bristol who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, particularly as charities gear up for crisis recovery following the coronavirus pandemic.