(Pic: Christmas is closing in. Credit: Flickr)

One in every two hundred people in the UK will be homeless this Christmas. With these numbers on the rise, charities becomes vital in Christmas time, Francisca Silva and Safiyah Bennington report.

According to the charity Shelter more than 81k households in England were found to be homeless in 2013/14. Temperatures keep getting lower and, unfortunately, in the United Kingdom there are still many families that spend Christmas in the streets, with no food and nowhere to go.

One Can Trust operates as a foodbank and is based High Wycombe. They have recently created the “Reverse Advent Calendar” which consists of putting aside a box (an empty shoe box, for example) and each day until Christmas just leave a food can or a coin.

While a majority of these charity schemes take place out of London, we spoke to South Bank University students who were shocked at the London statistics of homelessness and said that they would be more  than happy to help. A second year student, originally from Exeter, said: ” You see a lot of homelessness in London but don’t realise just how drastic the numbers are until someone says it. I would be more than happy to create a box, people don’t realise how privileged they are until they see someone with nothing.’

This idea can be accomplished by anyone, anywhere, for as long as you have the wish and heart to help the ones in need.