The Catholic homelessness charity The Passage is to have its work boosted by a half a million pound gift from Westminster Abbey – a gift that can be linked to the King’s Coronation a year ago.
Visitors to the abbey have soared in the past year, thanks to tourists wanting to see for themselves the place where the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II took place in 2022 and where King Charles and Queen Camilla were crowned in May 2023.
It has taken visitor levels to around 1.35 million a year – more than in 2019 before the Covid lockdown which severely reduced the abbey’s income. Visitors pay up to £29 for an entry ticket.
The £500,000 donation over two years will enable The Passage, founded by Cardinal Basil Hume, to expand its No Night Out programme, which was set up to ensure none of the people coming to it for help have to sleep on the streets.
No Night Out helps people by firstly getting them into temporary accommodation quickly and then secures permanent homes for people by providing deposits for flats, as well as support staff.
The Passage’s chief executive, Mick Clarke, said: “This is a very generous donation which will make a substantial difference to our work. We want to be able to intervene; with homelessness, prevention is better than cure.
“If someone hits the streets tomorrow, and they didn’t have a drink or drugs or mental health problem, within a week they would have one. With No Night Out, we can help prevent that”.
In London, there has been a 33 per cent increase in homelessness in the past year, with increasing numbers of young people having nowhere to go. With The Passage based in London’s Victoria, just down the road from Westminster Abbey, the Dean of Westminster, David Hoyle, said he was keen for the church to make a donation that was “a bit of a game-changer for The Passage and the neighbourhood”.
“This engagement can happen because when our income goes up our giving can go up,” he said.
The gift from the Church of England abbey to the Catholic charity mirrors the ecumenical nature of the Coronation, which featured prayers by different Christian leaders, including Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols, and the gift of relics by Pope Francis.
The Passage was a favourite charity of Princess Diana, and her son, the Prince of Wales, is its current royal patron.
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