St Petrock's providing Christmas lunch for rough sleepers

As well as outreach support, the charity also provides accommodation for people without a home

Exeter based charity St Petrock's has raised more than £27,000 for its Christmas appeal.

As part of the campaign, the homelessness charity will be providing a full Christmas lunch for all of its clients on 25 December.

It will also be able to provide gifts for those experiencing extreme poverty.

Senior Project Worker Tony Maguire said the charity tries to be as supportive as possible during "a difficult time of year."

He said: "Unfortunately a lot of our clients will have been dealt with some trauma either in their childhood or their adult life and this can trigger quite a lot of bad feelings.

"We have to be very gentle trying to keep Christmas low key, try and be as supportive as we can for our clients through what is a difficult time of year for them."

As well as outreach support, the charity also provides accommodation for people without a home.

'Cost-of-living crisis'

Peter Stephenson, Director of St Petrock's said the circumstances that surround people being unable to hold down housing have been compounded by the cost-of-living crisis.

He said: "We are seeing the impact of the cost-of-living crisis, we are seeing relationships break down which results in people on the streets because of the financial pressures people are facing.

"We have had former clients ring us up saying they can't cope any longer with the bills. They have been housed successfully for a while but actually the stress of managing constantly rising bills is proving to be too much."

The charity's mobile rough sleeper service goes out twice each weekday throughout the Christmas period, serving hot meals, performing welfare checks and arranging specialist support.

Mark, a rough sleeper, said the situation was tough no matter the time of year.

He said: "Being homeless on the street, living in doorways or car parks I wouldn't wish it on anybody. It's hard, it's not a lifestyle choice.

"Things can fall apart in anybody's lives and just unfortunately for me and other people it fell apart so bad that we ended up on the street."

As of 21 December the charity had raised £27,689.38 for its Christmas appeal.

The charity said every donation supports "homeless people in Exeter to rebuild their lives."