Homeless benefit from £180k in smartphone donations

Money donated through the app can be put towards the cost of a hot meal, bus tickets or other items

A charity has raised more than £180,000 for homeless people by asking for donations via a smartphone app.

The scheme, known as Change into Action, asks contributors if they want the money to go towards a general fund or say how the money should be spent.

It is being promoted as a "better way" to give to rough sleepers.

The app has already been introduced in six areas of the West Midlands and has just launched in a seventh, Dudley.

In Birmingham, the first area to get the app, £92,000 has been raised from people and businesses, with more than 400 individuals contributing.

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In Dudley, Laura Taylor-Childs, the councillor responsible for housing and communities, welcomed the scheme and said it was hard to know who to give to on the streets because "we don't know everybody's story, we don't know if there are any substance misuse issues, or whether somebody needs it really to pay their fuel bills".

And she added: "People who aren't comfortable giving money on the streets can donate in a safe way online."

Sophie Cross was helped by Churches Housing Association of Dudley and District

The local authority said the area did not have a large number of rough sleepers but support was needed for people with housing needs because of financial hardship.

One such person is Sophie Cross, who said being a "sofa surfer" in Dudley and sleeping at the homes of friends had been very awkward because "you're in someone else's home and you know you're there because you've got nowhere else to go and they know that".

She also approves of the online scheme, which was set up by the West Midlands Combined Authority and launched in December 2017.

"If [people] see homeless [people] on the street they will think twice about giving them money, but I think putting the money into an app will be a better idea because they know the money is going to someone who needs it."

Some of the money will go to Churches Housing Association of Dudley and District. Its chief executive Anna Walsh said the organisation was "over the moon that we get the opportunity to use this fund".

She said the money would be spent on "essential items such as bedding, pots and pans, food, all the things you need to set up home for the first time".